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CLONTARF. 




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MOITARCH OF IRELAND. AD 1014 



CLONTARF 



OR THE 



FIELD OF THE GREEN BANNER 



AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE. 



AND OTHER POEMS; 






BY 



J. AUGUSTUS SHEA. 



cow^ 



Iry^ 



NEW- YORK: XC ^VJMSHV ^ 

D. APPLETON & Co. 200 BROADWAY 
1843. 



\% 






JAMES B. SWAIN, PRINTER, 
No. 68 Barclay St. 



TO 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, Esq. 



THIS V01LUME 



IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 



SV HIS OBEDIEJTT SERVANT, 



JOHN AUGUSTUS SHEA. 



INTR ODUCTION 



Long has it been my ardent hope, 

Cherished through mawy a cheerless day, 
That Heaven would yet some vista ope 

For Freedom's long excluded ray ; 
That agents — not the deadly steel. 
Crimsoned by war's infuriate zeal ; 
Or siege or rapine, which but fling 

Freedom whole centuries from her course j 
And all the viler passions bring 

To subjugate her moral force — 
But Mind, commissioned from above, 
Centre of universal love, 
Order, and Law's harmonious plan, 
And Moral Unity of man — 
Would yet arise, in silent might, 

Would justify the long oppressed, 



¥111. INTRODUCTION. 

And Freedom's flag of life and light 
Wave from some world-commanding hight. 

Where Heaven's approving smile could rest. 
Nor has my hope, though born of pain 
And suffering, prophecied in vain. 
E'en as I sing, a Spirit new. 

Bright and regenerate, rides the storm » 
Pours philanthropic sunlight through. 

And waves the banner of Reform — 
Reform of inner life — the spring 
Of good in people and in king. 

And I would, even with humble power. 

Share in the promise of the hour. 

And feel the Spirit — prisoned long 

By mountain walls of world-wide wrong — 

Which, bursting through its bonds, at length 

Asserts its intellectual strength ; 

Dispenses, with resistless might, 

Rich floods of universal light. 

Which cast into eternal shade 

Errors that were accepted truth. 
And, like Minerva, full arrayed — 

Wisdom of years and nerve of youth — 
Stands on the battlements of earth 
And claims the world for second birth. 



INTRODUCTION. IX. 

If ever War's horrific tide 
Can to high heaven be justified. 
It is when tyranny v^ould strike 
Law, Freedom, Virtue, Truth, alike ; 
Arrest, with desperate hand, the mind, 

And stay, with sacrilegious force, 
The Sun of Truth, by Heaven designed 

To light Creation in its course, 
And show us in harmonious light 

Our true relation to each other ; 
How each has no distinctive right 

Of Earth, our universal mother. 
This is the principle, the aim, 

Hope, motive, end which justifies 
The sabre's flash, the cannon's flame. 

When Freedom waileth to the skies. 
Like a lone mother watching Death 
Contending with her infant's breath. 

Hence I, a part of re-born time, 
Would weave my tributary rhyme 
Of memories gathered from the grave 
Of Freedom's long-departed brave ; 
Of deeds of other days, which tell 
Of independence guarded well, 
By Freedom's ever faithful band — 



INTRODUCTION. 

The generous heart and ready hand — 
The warriors of ray native land. 

No tale of carnage do I wake. 

Nor battle sing for battle's sake ; 

But show what Virtue loves to dare — 

What joys forego — what dangers share- 

What friendly links — what kindred ties 

What sweet affiliations sever, 
For that best blessing of the skies — 

Freedom, triumphant and forever. 



CLONTARF 



Clontarf — ■ of memories ever dear 

To heart and spirit, which thy story, 
Through the dim lapse of many a year, 

Illmnines with its rays of glory, 
Pride of the ancient days, to thee 
I wake my humble minstrelsy : 
To thee, my native land, whose name, 
Inscribed in adamantine fame, 
vShall perish not till Time shall perish, 

And History lay aside her pen. 
And generations cease to cherish 

Deeds which are monuments of men 
Such men — O heaven ! had we but now 

Their burning chivalry, to brand 
In fire-words on the recreant brow, 



12 CLONTARF. 

Deeply as cuts the furrowing plough, 

" Here is a foe to Erin's land !" 
How few would, fettered thus, remain 
In bondage worse than Afric's chain — 
The bondage of the sow/, that shrinks 
From that of which it ever thinks, 
Freedom, the only bliss below 
Which weareth not the garb of woe — 
Which keepeth, with essential truth, 
Tlie heaven of its immortal youth: 
How few, like yonder recreant thing 

Who struts in titles of to-day — 
Those bright, accursed weeds that spring 

Shutting sweet flowers from nature's ray, 
Would thus degenerately bend 

In vassalage to foreign throne, 
But, strong as cataracts, descend 

To vindicate their nation's own. 
And cancel, on some field sublime. 
The deepest curse that fell since Time 
Wept o'er the birth of damning crime ? 

Clontarf ! full oft with sad delight 
I gaze upon each hallowed sight, 
And o'er my boyhood's dwelling flee 
On tireless pinions " fancy free." 



CLONTARF. 13 

The lake with emerald margin bound, 

The hill-top's heavenward height, 
By day with golden sumbeams crowned, 

With silver stars by night : 
The mighty deep, or lulled to rest, 
With gently undulated breast. 
Or leaping up with giant crest, 
High as the eagle builds his nest, 

Enthroned in mountain glee ; 
Let tempests rage or breezes blow, 
Let surges break or wavelets flow. 
Be robed thy plains with winter snow, 
Or wild-flowers bright as L-is' bow, 
By morning's grey or sunset's glow, 

Thou 'rt beautiful to me. 
Oh ! in those long departed days. 

How joyous must thy scenery be, 
Wlien every mountain caught the praise 

Of Freedom from the free ; 
And Erin's voice, from shore to shore. 
In one cathedral chorus bore 

To heaven her jubilee ! 
Happy were they who saw those hours 
With eyes undimmed by Sorrow's showers, 
Who died without the will to roam, 
And rest beside their childhood's home. 
2 



14 CLONTARF. 

Calmly they sleep, who, in that time 

Whose pride survives the death of ages, 

Stood self-ennobled and sublime, 

And, fired by minstrels, saints and sages. 

By sword and song, and prayer and lore, 

Against the Dane the sun-burst bore. 

Yet though in strong historic light 

Our isle was brightest of the bright, 

Though wiser or more sacred laws 

Had never pillared Freedom's cause, 

Yet was her sacred sanctuary 

Not from defiling influence free, 

Nor all secure from Treason's hand 

The throne and altar of the land. 

'T was not the simple peasant's wile 

That kindled discord in the isle, 

That flung its fiery terror round. 

And woke the war's volcanic sound : 

Envy, and rivalry, and hate, 

First sprung, like weeds, among the great — 

In the high places which should stand 

Like beacon-glories o'er the land. 

Exemplars, beaming pure and wide, 

Alike a promise and a pride. 



CLONTARF. 16 

Against the rightful monarch's power 
Maolmorda rose in rebel hour ; 
He summoned to his counsel's aid 
Each chieftain whom his sceptre swayed, 
And to his will, with fiendish arts. 
Moulded their minds and nerved their hearts ; 
Bade them for glorious deeds prepare. 
And nursed the seed of treason there ; 
No longer should Lagenia own 
Subordinance to Bryan's throne — 
Thenceforward should Lagenia be 
Throned in her own supremacy. 

To such too fatal words they bowed. 
And talked of freedom long and loud ; 
A bright new world of light and hope 
And liberty began to ope ; 
Day-dreams and visions rose around, 
And every sod became a mound 
O'er which a chieftain's banner flew, 
And round it iron clansmen drew ; 
The Future whispered to their ear 
Words they had been unused to hear. 
And sights they were unused to see. 
That win the million wondrously. 



16 CLONTARF. 

In fancy, e'en the serf became 
At once a man of note and name, 
And all wild draughts of vantage drew 
From fount so Lethean and so new. 

The Monarch of the Isle deplored, 

As patriot monarch should, 
The bloody refuge of the sword. 

E'en though the cause was good ; 
He wept that warrior e'er should steel 
His heart against his country's weal ; 
That ties of country, nobler far 
Than even those consanguine are. 
Should be dissevered and disgraced ! 
Rather such feelings were effaced 
From the pure page of nature's laws. 
Than stained by such dishonoring cause ! 
Nor to the monarch on that throne 
Was this regret confined alone : 
Where'er his sceptre's shadow fell 
Prevailed that feeling deeply well. 

From palace hall to cottage door 
The minstrels sang of deeds of yore ; 
They raised the memory-songs of Youth, 
Songs of traditionary truth, 



CLONTARF. 17 



Which had descended sweetly down 
Time's current, gathering renown 
From that first hour when, hand to hand, 
The conquered Danan of the land 
Set between them and Iber's race 
The covenant stone upon its place,' 
Whose graven promise there remained, 
Undimmed, unbroken and unstained. 

Brief privilege was there for grief, 
A nation's glory claimed relief ; 
The danger festering in the land 
Required a quick and skilful hand, 
A bold and energetic leech, 
Ere yet the vital spring it reach : 
And such was he, to check and save — 
The good old monarch, wise and brave. 
His mandate's out, the ready shield 

Resigns its honored rust again ; 
The steed is harnessed for the field, 

Youthhood enkindles aged men. 
And manhood's energy has strung 
Hearts which but yesterday were young. 



The ocatherino; clansmen, fast and far 
Arose to hail the rising war ; 



18 CLONTARF. 

And, kindling with the patriot fire, 
The minstrel seized the ecstatic lyre, 
And, raptured with the theme and time, 
Thus weaved his rude and wizard rhyme 



Sons* 

Farewell the breezy mountain, 

Where Boyhood reveled long. 
And hail the field of Freedom's fight, 

And the gathering of her strong. 
Not gladlier the forests green 

Expand to April's light. 
Than the hearts of Erin's warriors 

To the rapture of the fight. 

There floats our hallowed banner. 

Our glory and our guide ; 
In olden days it led our sires 

Through many a path of pride ; 
A greener verdure 's glowing 

Where'er its beauty waves. 
And the headland bold, where 't is unrolled, 

A prouder billow laves. 



CLONTARF. 19 

Ne'er sung a nation's minstrel 

A banner of such might ; 
Nor e'er did victor-warrior bring 

A nobler from the fight. 
Then wave it on the mountain, 

And o'er the armed plain, 
Until once more it sweep and soar 

In triumph o'er the Dane . 

Not to the bosom, strong and stern, 

Of king and chieftain, bard and kerne, 

Did the high impulse of the hour 

Alone confine its kindling power ; • 

To Woman's gentler breast the flame 

With a more sad persuasion came — 

A spring-like radiance, which appears 

More lovely in its mist of tears. 

Where pride and love were sweetly blent 

Into one mystic element. 

The faithful matron wept to part 

The glory of her house and heart ; 

The maiden, on whose soul the hope 

Of years had just begun to ope. 

Drooped in the pallid Fear that cast 

A death-shade o'er her brightest feelings ; 



20 CLONTARF. 

To.her the Future was the Past, 
A tomb of desolate revealings, 

That mocked and marred e'en hope's endeavor, 

And told her Joy had gone for ever. 

The mother, who for years had gazed, 
With all a mother's soul of pride. 

Upon her son, and fondly praised 

His step upon the mountain side, 
As towards his home at eve he hied. 

Wordless, and passionless and lost. 

Beheld him join the warrior host. 

And, if no sorrow dimmed her eye, 

The fountain of her heart was dry. 

Not fond the less, but sterner far. 

The father blessed his manly boy. 

Spoke thrillingly of Freedom's war. 
And all its pageantry of joy : 

Of battles, arms and chieftains told. 

And glories of the days of old ; 

Emania's Red Branch Knights, and all 

The wars of Morni and Fingal ; 

And ran the current down of Time, 

Through scenes endeared and deeds sublime ; 

Told how his own good sword and shield 

Flashed fear through many a hostile field. 



CLONTARF. 21 



And sighed that he could not again 

Mix in the strife of vahant men, 

And that his aged hmbs became 

Inglorious recreants of his name ; 

And then, inspired, gave thanks to heaven 

That to his heart and home were given 

A son to vindicate his fame, 

And Avave the half expiring flame, 

In Freedom's torch-race, as the bold 

Hellenic youths were wont of old ; 

Then, tottering to its resting place. 

That sword of triumph he would take : 
" Gird on this heirdom of our race. 

And wield it for thy country's sake !" 
Thus would he say, with feeling strong. 
Or thus would twine the gift with song : 



Strong pulse of my bosom. 
Fair light of my brow, 

I never have loved thee 
More fondly than now ; 



22 CLONTARF. 

Than now that I give thee 
To foe and to field, 

To conquer or perish, 
But never to yield. 

Take the sword of thy father, 

A field's to be won, 
Let it flash o'er that field 

Like the beams of the sun ; 
If it sink, let it be, 

With the pride of its dawn. 
As near to its heaven 

As when it was drawn. 

By the skill of a freemen, 

For freedom 't was made, 
In the hands of a freeman 

'T will not be betrayed. 
I have loved it — how dearly 

Yon heaven can see — > 
Almost with the love-spell 

That binds me to thee. 

That sword once was light 
As a rush in my hand, 



CLONTARF. 23 



But now I can scarcely 

Its movement commando 

No matter ! come hither ! 
Come hither, my boy ! 

There, take it — -Oh God, 
What fulfihnent of joy. 

Go forth in young glory, 

Go vanquish the Dane, 
And SM^ell the proud story 

Our land must retain. 
Go ! leave not a footprint 

Of foes on our sod : 
For glory and Erin, 

For freedom and God. 



Here turn we to a rugged scene. 

Which o'er the Atlantic looks afar, 
With many a pleasant dell betvreen, 
Up which, in lines of silver green, 

The waves would rush in mimic war. 
'T was such a paradise as Love 

Alone can build, without the aid 
Of garden and romantic grove. 

Or the alternate light and shade 



24 CLONTARF. 

Of fountain, as the foliage, stirred 
By breath of breeze, or wing of bird, 
Might let a transitory ray 
Among its sleeping waters play : 
For Love can build such places, bright 
As e'er imaginations light 
Illumined in its zenith power, 
Whate'er the site, whate'er the hour. 
'T was a lone cottage from whose door 
The eye could see the billow soar, 
Or slumber, as an infant still. 
As ruled the Tempest Spirit's will. 
The ear could catch the evening song 
Climbing the weedy cliffs along, 
A vesper music sweeter far 
Than wall-bound psalms cathedral are. 
The rocks, of nature's stormiest mould, 
Were high, precipitous and bold : 
Here, like a phalanx firm they gave 
Defiance to the leaguering wave. 
There, in broad cavern, would receive 

Sweet Echo, who delighted well 
Through the soft lapse of summer eve 

To sing and weave her magic spell ; 
Here, piled in beetling towers would frown 
Death through the perilous waters down. 



CLONTARF. 25 

And, lessening, form on either hand 
A crescent reef around the strand. 
There oft along that headland way, 
At dawn or. close of summer day, 
'T was pleasant to behold each ray 
Of sunlight at its ocean play. 
Or, silvering beautifully far, 
The fair and thoughtful Evening Star. 

Such was the lone wild scene before 
The veteran Ibar's cottage door ; 
Around its walls the trees were few 
Which from it westward shadows threw, 
But when the sun went seaward down 
The radiance of its golden crown 
Would, with its farewell light, illume 
The precincts of the cheerful room. 
Or linger, like a lover, long 
The rosy lattice wreaths among. 

As though to woo the beauty bright 
Who, often sitting there alone. 
Rivalled — with lustre all her own. 

Soul, heart and eyes — > his setting light. 

MoNONiA was young and fair 
As child of mingled earth and air 
3 



26 CLONTARF. 

Could be : and Innocence and Grace 

With sister rivalry would seek 
Which could, with happier action, trace 

Their mingled charms on brow and cheeks 
She, ere her lip had learned to speak 

A mother's name, was motherless, 
Nor with her shared that mother meek 

The ectasy of that caress 

Which words could never yet express. 
But He, who tempereta the wind 

To the shorn lamb, in mercy gave 
A strength to her confiding mind. 

To breast the world's tempestuous wave. 
And, 'mid its dangers wild and dim. 
To turn her hope and heart to Him. 
She early learned to bend the knee 

At matin and at vesper hour. 
And ask of heaven that she might be 

For its pure clime a fitted flower z 
And there in holiness abide. 
Close by her sainted mother's side, 
Seeing, in God's own dwelling-place, 
That earthly lost one face to face. 
Full soon the beam of childhood grew 

Into that more dilated light 



CLONTARF. 27 

Which round the social orbit threw 

A stronger, more defined delight ; 
And, circling up life's firmanent, 

Asserted its ascendant right, 
While to all eyes and hearts it sent 

A radiance still more warm and bright. 
Thus sixteen ripening summers rolled, 
Rounding her symmetry of mould ; 
And every hour her mind impressed 

With dreams of feelings yet to be, 
Waking within her trembling breast 

A new, unquiet jubilee ; 
Dehghtful, strange and undefined, 
The meteor of her dazzled mind. 

Oft mid those rocky headlands, tossed 
At Nature's random round the coast. 
Did Desmond's fearless footsteps climb 
In lad-hood's gay, elastic time ; 
Leaving below his little skiff. 
And scaling up the beetling cliff*; 
Fitting his foothold in the cleft 
The ever loosening fragments left. 
And grasping, with adventurous hand, 
Some withy tendril swaying wild, 
Would reach the mid-way table land 



28 CLONTARF. 

Where the inviting wild-flower smiled, 

With rocks on rocks still o'er him piled ; 
And breathing there a deeper breath, 

Again the ambitious task essayed, 
Till from the top he looked beneath 

And saw the wavelets as they played 
Around his tiny skiff, below, 
Dancing among them to and fro. 

There, sitting on some mossy seat. 

Or gathering fruit or berries red, 
Or some pet lambkin at her feet. 

Entwining wild-flowers round its head, 
The fair Mononia oft he met. 
And caught her eyes of glowing jet ; 
And blushing, hastened down the glen, 

And w^andered, oft he knew not whither, 
Yet, timid to approach again, 

Would stray by magic impulse thither ; 
And, if she were not there, would trace 
Her form, in spirit, in the place ; 
And then would roam through brake and bower, 
Whiling away the evening hour. 
By love's transition less he thought 
Of joys his soul had lately sought ; 



CLONTARF. 29 

Nor beetling cliff, nor wild-flower now 

With daring flushed his eager brow ; 

No more at eve he plied his oar 
I 

Among the waters by the shore ; 

But sought, with love's first timid tread, 

That now eiysian spot which she 
Had with her wand of beauty made 

A shrine for love's divinity. 
Less often now Mononia came : 
Haply she too had felt the flame 
Which Pilgrim Love had lighted there. 

And where with breathing frankincense 
He fed his censer till the air 

With his own spirit grew intense ! 
Etherial Being — essence bright — • 

Soul of the world — Eternal Love ! 
Revealing, to our mortal sight, 
Reality of that delight 

Whose living fountain is above. 
How sensitive, how pure thou art 
Through thine own earthly heaven, the heart ; 
Shrinking away from every tone, 
And glance which are not all thine own : 
Yea ! from thine own, at first conceiving. 
Timid and trembling, yet believing. 
3* 



30 CLONTARF. 

The eve they met — the fair and young — 
A bright, new world around them flung ; 
It was an epoch with whose birth 
Came all the fiiture of this earth. 
Nor night, nor day should ever more 
A shadow cast, a beam restore. 
That wakened not some thought or sigh 
In either breast for hours gone by I 

Now called to academic toil, 

To cultivate the classic soil, 

Made sacred by the Mantuan's lyre. 

And glorious with Homeric fire, 

Desmond revisited those groves 

Whose shadowy places Learning loves, 

And, where pale Science furls her wing 

Beside the pure Pierian spring. 

He oft had read, with eager eyes, 

" Let him who winneth bear the prize !" 

And, wrapt in love of classic lore. 

He searched the golden page, 
And many a palm of triumph bore 

From those of riper age. 
And thus became, in danger's hour, 
A portion of his country's power. 



CLONTARF. 31 



For then the Nation's mind was felt 
Where'er the love of letters dwelt, 
Wherever Cadmus' heavenly dower 
Had built its citadel of povf er, 
There did the bright Gal-grena rise^ 

Mid hearts to whom its every fold 
Was dear as hopes that light the skies, 

And o'er their arch our home behold. 
Then where that battle meteor shone, 
Rushed the high-minded warrior on, 
And with the patriot tide of life 
Swelled the high triumph of the strife : 
Nor did they deem it vainly shed, 
If only Freedom's banner led. 
Such were the principles instilled 

In Erin's academic halls, 
Such were the principles which filled 

With warrior men Minerva's walls ; 
Such hallowed Lacedemon's name. 
And gave Thermopylae to Fame ; 
With such the Spartan youth were fired ; 
For such too Socrates expired - — 
He who beheld the Christian light, 

Prophetic of its birth. 
But died before its morning height 

Qhc^/] fr]r,vv on the earth : 



/ 



82 CLONTARF. 

Such were the tenets Erin taught, 

And such the lore which Desmond sought. 

Thence in that day her mind went forth 
To East and West, and South and North ; 
Then did the world's wide nations hail, 

Where'er the sun was known to smile. 
The trophied minds of Innisfail — 

The children of the ocean-isle, 
Who thus their hallowed treasures bore 
To civilize the savage shore. 
And many, from whose bosom first 
Knowledge to strength and power was nursed, 
The sacred groves of learning sought, 
Where pious Columbanus taught. 
Where daring Erigena's hght,^ 
Caught from the Areopagite, 
Its bright but dangerous lustre shed. 
Which if but Truth's, the land had led ; 
And France, chivalric, proud and brave, 
Hailed Erin's pilgrims of ihe wave, 
And Italy, of classic ground, 
Donatus with a mitre crowned '^ 
All testify our land was then 
The pride of Learning's chosen men. 



CLONTARF. 33 

Oh ! Erin's golden age of time ! 
Whose every moment was sublime, 
With all the virtues v^hich could shed 
Glories upon a nation's head — 
Religion — Universal Love — 
Pointing the pilgrim's soul above : 
Here Faith, unshaken by the storm, 
In sterm sublimity of form ; 
Here Hope, in garments which outshone 
The splendor of the noontide sun — 
And Charity — with gentle heart, 

And soul of universal span, 
Tracing no section on life's chart — 

Embraced the world-wide race of man, 
Looked upward with benignant eyes, 
And claimed alliance with the skies — 
While Freedom, with her banner streaming, 

Stood 'mid her mountain ramparts proud, 
And saw her sword of triumph gleaming 

In many a battle-field unbowed. 

Communing 'mid those scenes sublime. 

Beside the classic fount of Truth, 
With those who gave the olden time 

The glory of immortal youth; 



34 CLONTARF. 

Those who in high Olympus dwelt, 

And with the Gods familiar spoke, 
And all the sacred influence felt, 

Until in song their spirits woke, 
And kindhng with Apollo's fire 
Inspired the nations with their lyre — 
Immortal power, whose mystic wealth 
Is subject not to time or stealth ; 
Of which, of habitants of earth. 
The Bard alone can know the worth ; 
And he can love it, purely well. 
For its own sympathetic spell, 
For none can tell, and few can feel. 
The treasure of the Poet's zeal. 
Communing thus, from hour to hour. 
With inspiration's classic power, 
Desmond would seek some lonely place. 

Where, amid wild-flowers bright as wild, 
The streamlet ran its cheerful race 

On to the ocean, like a child ; 
And pray that yet his soaring name 
Might dare the loftiest hights of fame. 
But not the less, by day and night, 
Would come, as fairy vision bright, 
Thoughts of MoNONiA, and dispute, 
In language eloquent, though mute, 



CLONTARF. 35 



Love's empire with the ancient sages ; 

And he would, magic-bound, resign 
The study of their cumbrous pages, 

And turn to glories more divine — 
To memory of the eden hour 
When first he felt her beauty's power, 
In wild sweet witchery arrayed. 
The lone and lovely rustic maid : 
When not a man, nor yet a boy, 
His was an undefined joy : 
The Past a motive to excite, 
The Future pregnant with delight, 
The Present a lethargic race. 
Yet promising the treasure place — 
And on some tablet thus portray 
The feelings of his love's young day : 



In this garden Elysium, where, half the year round, 
By morning's or moonlight's more magical ray, 

In fragrance and freshness the roses are found. 

And the leaves and the winds are for ever at play. 



36 CLONTARF. 

Where the soft spreading mosses — the golden and 
green — 
By the music of waters invite you to rest, 
And the branches fling out their o'ershadowing screen, 
With the sun shining through it like smiles of the 
blest. 

In this garden, at evening, I 've lingered alone. 
Recalling in fancy the scenes of the past : 

Those scenes of life's morning, ere Knowledge had 
thrown 
Round my mind her creations so dazzling and vast. 

Those scenes were all joyous — all full of the light 
With which Nature, benevolent mother, will crown 

Our spirits, ere yet, in its merciless flight. 

The dark rushing Future will trample them down. 

But brighter than all, like some luminous star 
Which in lustre and loveliness ruleth the rest, 

Was one whose mild beauty, though seen from afar. 
Like a planet of destiny shone through my breast. 

MoNONiA ! that star amid millions wert thou ! 
And well I remember that shadowless even. 



CLONTARF. 37 

When first from our headlands I gazed on thy brow : 
Thy beauty my planet — those headlands my 
heaven. 

Sing, harp of my feelings, the dark shining hair, 
That was free as her thoughts which no fingers 
should bind ; 

Her cheeks like wild roses, bright children of air. 
And her step like the deer's on the hills of the wind. 

Her smile — its own paradise-gladness revealing — 

Love, innocence, beauty and playfulness beamed ; 
And her face lighted up with the whole soul of 
feeling. 
As though it but mirrored the love she had 
dreamed. 

If a moment will come, as it may, and it must, 
To equal those moments of bliss, it will be 

When leaving these halls, with their pages of dust, 
I shall fly, my Mononia ! to love and to thee. 

How few, from once the bud has grown. 
The moments ere the flower is blown ; 
And the eye half doubtingly perceives, 
In breathing balm and blushing leaves, 
4 



38 CLONTARF. 

The promise of its embryo hope 
With care-rewarding richness ope. 
Thus does the stripHng by our side 
Stand forth arrayed in manhood's pride^ 
While the contending passions claim 
His choice for fortune or for fame. 
Desmond had known and felt the wrong 
That swelled each minstrel's thrilling song ; 
He loved his country with a power 

Which on his soul the truth impressed ^ 
That liberty was nature's dower, 

Wealth of the universal breast : 
And that, of earth, his native land 
First claimed his youth, his heart and hand. 
Rich in those feelings which are more 

Than armour to the breast, 
He sought that dwelling by the shore — 

Of dwellings loved the best — 
Where Love led every thought by day, 
And where, by night, his dreamings lay. 

'T is midnight ! hamlet, hill and plain, 
Slumber in April's moonlight reign ;^ 
Stars gem the firmamental blue, 
Like eyes of angels sparkling through ; 



CLONTARF. 39 

The trees their young green leaves expand, 

Their sleep by lulling breezes fanned ; 

The shoreward waters voiceless reach 

The sands that zone the silvery beach, 

And scarce a motion or a sound, 

Disturbs the dreaming night around. 

Yet of that universal rest 

No fraction reached the lonely breast 

Of one fair maid, who, ray by ray^ 

Beheld that starlight die away 

Into the firmanent above her. 

Which hither should have led her lover. 

The vigil lamp, no longer bright, 

Now burned with faint and fitful light. 

And gasped and flickered, loth to partj 

Even as the hope within the heart. 

Awhile in thought she paced the floor. 

The casement, then, approached once more ; 

She heard the morning breeze go by, 

But dark were still the earth and sky ; 

The air was chill, no streak of grey 

Gave promise of approaching day ; 

All still and desolate and drear 

And watch-worn, she reclined her head ; 
And Nature, gentle friend of care, 

Weaved glorious dream-spells round her bed. 



40 CLONTARF. 

! balmy Sleep — oblivion kind — 
Samaritan of the wounded mind ; 
How do the hopeless hope for thee, 
To set from pain the spirit free, 
And bid it onward, upward spring 
Once more, on fresh and vigorous wing, 
For climes where, mingling with the blest, 
Peace will imparadise its rest : 
Or for those stars' harmonious sphere — 
Those islands of the boundless air, 
Which some philosophers assign 
For souls, MoNONiA, such as thine. 

Calmly the dreaming maiden lies. 

As though within were seraphs dwelling. 
Soothing, with sympathetic sighs. 
Her bosom's fall, her bosom's rise. 

And of delights celestial telling. 
But not of. heaven the golden dreams, 

Whose spell in dimpling smiles is straying 
Along her lips of love, like beams 

Of morn o'er parted rose-buds playing. 
Those lips in secret utterence ope. 

As angel forms around her hover ; 
She dreams in estacy of hope. 

And sighs but for her worshipped lover : 



CLONTARF. 41 

And surely joyous cherubim 

Take up that sigh to heaven for him ; 

For not by lands or wealth untold, 

Hath he Mononia's favor found ; 
She giveth not her heart for gold, 

Though it be piled in ingots round ; 
Nor yet because her suitor be 
Shining in scutcheoned chivalry, 
From baron bold or king's degree. 
It was his spirit's truthfulness, 
Which knev/ love's feelings to express. 
With that serene and manly art, 

That, free from flattery's serpent guise. 
Enters the Eden of the heart. 

And worships while it wins the prize. 

When Nature broke that joyous sleep, 
MoNONiA woke to think and weep ; 
But never did suspicion yet 
Whisper that Desmond could forget ; 
No ! she had read his heart too well, 
To think a moment 't would rebel. 
She read aright ! as evening drew 
Its curtains round the horizon's blue, 
Love, trembling, kept its watch again. 
Lest peril had beset his v.^ay, 
4* 



42 CLONTARF. 

But Desmond loved his fellow-men, 

And that were safety night or day ! 
And hark ! does she his accents hear — 
Accents nor strange to heart or ear ? 
Hark ! they are his — those tones so soft, 
Nor loved too well, nor heard too oft : 



Calm the skies, and now the night 
Reigneth robed in starry light. 
And the streamlet, as it gushes, 
Greets the rose's dewy blushes. 
Now's the hour when lovers tell 
Sacred thoughts by hill and dell ; 
And the star-light loves to shine 
For hearts, Mononia, such as thine. 

Such a night ! No brighter hour 
Ever gladdened lake or bower j 
Fitter time was never born 
To bring in love's rosy morn ; 
Let the cold in slumber be. 
Moonlight wakes for you and me ; 



CLONTARF. 43 

All around, below, above 

Whisper " now's the hour for love." 

Yet our parting sad must be ; 

Many a night like this must flee. 

Ere that moon, auspicious, thus 

Shall again arise for us : 

Many an evening hour of sorrow 

Set, nor lead a brighter morrow ; 

Ere she tell us from above 

" Now's the genial hour for love !" 

Thus sang the youth, as on he w^ent. 
Breathing Love's genial element. 
And heart as light as ever pressed 
Its pulses through a warriors breast ; 
But quickly as Mononia's eye 

Beheld the glittering mail and plume. 
It darkened like a thunder sky 

Ere rends one peal the silent gloom : 
The frequent bodings of her soul 
Flashed not, but gradually stole, 
Telling some dreadful fear within. 
Where fear before had never been. 
In that unwonted garb arrayed. 
Scarcely believed the wondering maid 



44 CLONTARF. 

Her peaceful Desmond she beheld ; 

And prophet-grief her bosom swelled. 

" Had the wild war notes w^on his heart 

From Love's less bright but gentler part ? 

Could he — the loved, the only one, 

Her heart had ever dwelt upon — 

Her sunlight, which where'er he dwelt, 

Was, even though absent, ever felt — 

Could he whose life, so fondly free. 

On her's had kindled thrillingly. 

The deep ensealment of whose vow 

Was burning still on lip and brow. 

Could he, from her one moment, sever, 

A moment that might be for ever. 

Or" — here her chiding country rushed 

Upon her heart with strength unbroken, 
The hot quick tears in silence gushed ; 

The thought expired before 't was spoken. 
" Forgive me, Desmond, tarrying long 
For thee, I did my country wrong ; 
I 've erred, 't is past, and I resign 
Your love, as no less her's than mine. 
! never, never shall the bard 

Bewail, in me, that recreant daughter 
Of Erin, who would not regard 



CLONTARF. 45 

The humblest flower that decks her sward, 
O'er all that love hath ever brouo-ht her : 

o 

Its hopes, its happiness, and him. 
Without whose presence all is dim." 

Desmond, by woman thus addressed, 

MoNONiA to his bosom pressed ; 

And Erin sanctified the vow 

Which love renewed between them now. 

" The fears," he said, " thy heart allowed 

To dim thine eye, thy soul to shroud, 

Are but as clouds that break in rain. 

And all is bright and calm again ; 

They prove the wisdom of thy will 

Is Erin's own, triumphant still. 

So did the Doric mothers give 

Love, pleasure, all, that Greece should live ; 

And will thy not less classic part 

Through danger guide and nerve my heart ^ 

And I, where'er my falchion shine, 

Shall link my patriot love with thine. 

Come, come, Mononia, check this tide, 

Tears ill become a soldier's bride ; 

Now is the hour thy smiles to give, 

And bid me for my Country live. 



46 CLONTARF. 

And bring to thee, from valor's field, 
No stain, but glory's, on her shield !" 
" Enough !" she cried, " around my soul 
These tempest-fears no longer roll ; 
I feel the glory of the spell 
Which thou hast weaved so sweetly well ; 
Love, Hope, adieu, but for awhile ; 
And welcome to the embattled file, 
That shields from sacrilegious hand 
The banner of our sainted land !" 

Of Erin's maiden bosoms her's 

Was but a sister — was but one 

Of the unnumbered worshippers 

That stood, as planets round their sun, 

Burning within the attractive flame — 

The sunlight of their country's name. 

Though since that day have centuries passed. 

With tyranny o'erburdened blast. 

Along that isle, did they efface 

Aught of the glory or the grace 

Of that high Amazonian race ? 

No — • no ! it is not in the length 

Of years to annihilate the strength 

Which dwells with their bosoms' home, 

Pure as our Isle's encircling foam ! 



CLONTARF. 47 

The mothers of that land have nursed 
Heroes the first among the first — 
Those who, wherever Freedom sought 

Her empire to extend, 
Have deeds of proud achievement wrought. 

Devoted to the end ; 
And set that land's escutcheoned name 
First on the Ararat of fame. 

They spoke of love's young fervent feelings, 

Its hopes' and fears' alternate strife ; 
The first with all its bright revealings, 

The last with all its death of life ; 
They spoke of that sweet twilight hour — 

That hour of starlight's sacred coming. 
When farewell sunbeam-S kissed each each flower. 

And honey-bees were homeward humming, 
Each first the other saw, and knew 

Their fates were from that hour united. 
And felt, their hearts so twine-like grew, 

That, once dissevered, both were blighted 
But the world's knowledge, never loth 

To chase away bright fancy's vision, 
Grew up with their maturing growth. 
And from the elysium dreamed by both 

Drove all that rendered it elysian. 



48 CLONTARF. 

They stood in silence ! dangerous mood, 

Where Love in every pulse is pleading ; 
It damps the soldier's fortitude, 

And vreakens woman's strongest heeding. 
At length, with energetic start. 
He shook the danger from his heart ; 
He saw his horoscope of fame 
Rise at his country's magic name, 
And, with a smile of sweet control, 
Spoke the true Stoic of the soul : 
" MoNONiA, the joy of grief 

I never, never knew 'til now ; 
I knew not it possessed relief 

To soothe the heart, and light the Irow ! 
But 't is a moment such as this — 

The sad farewell — the banner's flout — 
The present grief — the future bliss — 

That brings the bruised balsam out. 
Our love was witnessed not by men, 

In birth or blooming, spring or growth ; 
The breath that gave to yonder glen 
Its spring-time now, its autumn then. 

Kindled the faithful flame in both ; 
And He who willed it thus will never 
The fond and mystic feeling sever !" 



CLONTARF. 49 

Then hand in hand, and lieart to heart, 
And lip to lip, were fondly pressed : 

*' Farewell !" she sighed, " we now can part !" 
Her tranquil eyes told all the rest ! 

And who can coldly dare deny 

The honest language of the eye, 

Where we can trace each secret thought 

Clearly as though in letters wrought ; 

Letters of truthful light, engraven 

Alike by conscience and by Heaven r 

If smiling with another's joy. 

And weeping for another's woe, 
Denote a heart whose fond employ 

Was yielding happiness below, 
Mononia's must supremely be 
A heaven of purest charity : 
And the hushed w^ave that, on bright eves 
Its bosom to the surset heaves. 
Rejoices not in holier light 
Than did Mononia's heart that night. 

At that dim early hour, ere yet, 

On the blue heaven's expanded brow 

The morning star its light had set. 

Or oped the blossom on the bough, 
6 



50 CLONTARF. 

The Field of the Green Banner lay 
In tented pomp of War's array, 
Abiding the expected hour 
To check the Rebel Prince's power. 
O'er shadowing hill and tented plain, 
Silence still held unbroken reign, 
Save now and then by varied knell 
Of time when called the sentinel. 
As he awoke, on measured round. 
The trusty word with solemn sound ; 
While brightly flashed the fitful glance 
Of moonbeams on his moving lance. 
Such is the vigil warriors keep. 
While comrades rest secure'' in sleep. 

Down through the blue skies beauteously 
The moon descendeth now, 

Submerging in the far off sea 

Her bright and queenly brow ; 

And all within -the horizon's rim 

Becomes more undefined and dim. 

And now the dark clouds climb the night. 

As though to dare one beam of light, 

And, for a season, cover all 

Beneath the firmamental pall. 






\ 



CLONTARF. 51 

How true a type is night of death, 

Without a star, without a breath ; 

Time of strange sights and sounds and things, 

Beyond enquiry's plumeless wings. 

It giveth beings back a breath 

Long chronicled by hand of Death : 

Beneath its spell our senses stray 

Unfettered by unconscious clay, 

And give ideal worlds a hold 

For baffled reason far too bold ! 

In yonder tent whose lonely light 
Gleams faintly on the gazer's sight ? 
A human form I fancy there, 
In humble attitude of prayer, 
His arms, at full and lifted length. 
Move with the spirit's sacred strength ; 
His face upturned, as though -he gazed 
On vision bright, or emblem raised, 
To give devotion holier power 
Of prayer to consecrate the hour ; 
Or, as though he some converse prized 

Beatific, communing thence ; 
In attitude so spiritualized, 

Of piety intense. 



52 CLONTARF- 

His patriarchal hairs are white 
As snows upon our mountain height^ 
Growing till many a bleaching year 
Hath piled its stainless winters there. 

'T is he — the Monarch of the Isle — 
Who prayeth with prophetic smile,. 
Ere the fierce battle hour come outy 
And wake the land with thunder shout. 
He tliirsteth not for foeman's blood — 

Though oft before his prophet wand 
Has rushed the rocky bosom's flood,. 
For justice and his country's good — 

For he of peace was far more fond ; 
Yet would he see no foreign hand 
Pollute the heir-loom of his land, 
Or kindle the invader's fires 
Beside the tomb-house of his sires, 
Or fling a conqueror's chain around 
His people, whom but virtue bound. 
He never drew dishonor's blade. 
By him was never trust betrayed ; 
A nation gave him royal power. 
He raised her glory hour by hour ^ 



CLONTARF. 53 

He was a model of such men 

As mankind may consider sent 

To show to earth what Heaven designed, 
In its omnipotent mercy, when 

He clothed man with luminous mind, 
Lord of each mystic element. 
And linked that power with deathless Soul 
To animate the wondrous whole. 

When home, at eve, the cotter came. 

And sate beside his cheerful fire. 
He loved to tell of Brian's fame, 
And, while he spoke the monarch's name, 

His children woke the joyous choir 
Of their young bosoms — girl and boy — -« 
With a most fond and innocent joy. 
While he, with that unreal frown 

Which but a father's soul could bring 

O'er his fond features, like a king, 
Put the domestic rebels down ; 
And, taking, with extended hands. 

The soft and willing hand of either. 
Anticipating their demands. 

Closed them within his own together. 
And taught them in their prayers to pray 
For their good monarch night and day. 
5* 



54 CLONTARF. 

Nor by the cottage hearth alone 

Were Brian's countless virtues known ; 

The bower where beauty's smile was brighest, 

The hall where beauty's foot was lightest, 

Were eloquent of him who knew 

Full well that knighthood never drew 

A holier halo round his lance 

Than woman's soul-inspiring glance : 

That mailed warrior never draws 

A more electric sword in fight, 
Than when he sees round Freedom's cause 

Beauty's approving smile of light. 
The mountain warrior stern and wild. 

Nurseling of nature's stormiest mood, 
Who loved the tempest when a child, 

Upon the headland's solitude, 
His bosom felt a holier flame ; 

A braver transport fired his eye, 
Whene'er he heard his Monarch's name, 

In minstrel's song or battle's cry : 
The fair, the brave, the young, the old, 
In song have sung, in tale have told, 
And later minstrels wake the string 
To Erin's best and proudest king. 

The prayer is o'er : he rises now,, . ^ . 

He sets the crown upon his brow : 



CLONTARF. 55 



The crown a type of that which yet 
Upon his brow his God will set. 
He looketh toward the distant hill, 
Where laggard night is lingering still ; 
And seeth, shining through the air, 
The bright eyed star of morning there, 
Precursor of that orb which he 
At its next setting might not see, 
But which, for many a future age. 
Shall light a pure eventful page. 
Which Freedom will full oft unfold 
To read of Erin's brave and bold — 
Her heroes of immortal mould. 

NiAL, the minstrel, brave and good. 
As e'er at board or battle stood. 
Cast his impatient glance, where dim. 
The hills defined the horizon's rim ; 
At length he saw the warrior men 
Marching by mountain-side and glen. 
And as the sun its golden beams. 
Shed, like the light of happy dreams, 
On nature's April robes of green, ^ 
His spirit swelling to the scene — 
Green hills, fond homes, a patriot king, 
And stalwart clans in living ring — 



56 CLONTARF. 

He seized his harp, a prelude rung, 
And thus beside his monarch sung : 



Sons df tfte iJS^atlverCttfi* 

Oh, king of red battles, 

Could NiAL but tell 
How his veins with the manhood 

Of chivalry swell ; 
Could he sweep, as he swept them. 

The harp strings of Brian, 
When he bore through those battles 

The strength of the lion. 

Then, then, Pd leap upward 

As light as a child, 
When on its wild pastime 

A parent has smiled. 
But though o'er my forehead 

The winters are white, 
I will sing of thy heroes — 

Thy people of might ! 

Like a king, o'er the mountain, 
The morning advances. 



CLONTARF. 57 



Lighting up with its glory , 
Our forest of lances ; 

And greenly above them 
The abbey tree waves, 

Which has curtained for ages 
Our forefather's graves. 

There's the Princedom of Oriel, 

Where we combine 
The numbers, and prowess, 

And blood of that line. 
Hy Cairbre's good banner 

Is marshalling there — 
Here the brands of Mac Garth y 

Flash lightnings of fear. 

Here M'Mahon, M'Loughlin, 

O'DONNELL, O'ThAIL, 

O'Kelly, O'Hanlan, 

M'Dermot, O'Neill, 
The strength of their Houses 

Is dark on the field, 
Where waveth the banner 

And flasheth the shield. 

Again comes a multitude, 
Throng upon throng. 



58 CLONTARF. 

Like billows on billows, 

As countless and strong ; 

And here from your borders, 

Loch Dearg and Loch Neagh, 

Is the pride of your people 
In gallant array. 

Let the Dane sweep the billows 

Of Norse till they feel. 
To their farthermost limits, 

The strength of his keel ; 
But ne'er shall his footstep 

Or armament rest 
On one turf or one wave 

Of the Isle of the West. 

*T is not the reckless gush of life 
That makes the glory of the strife ; 
'T is not the shock of martial might ! 
No — no ! it is the moral right. 
And ne'er did heaven such consign 
To purer field, Clontarf, than thine ! 
It was thy children's right to be. 
For Freedom's vindication, free ; 
But with thy heaveij-directed pride 
Was many a virtue blent beside ; 



CLONTARF. 69 

To wrest from vice the Nation's crown, 
To tread a royal traitor down, 
To make her throne a sacred place, 
Free from suspicion of disgrace. 
Where he who sceptred sat should be 
Vice-gerent of the Deity. 

Maolmorda's treason, gathering strength,^ 
His nation's councils would o'erwhelm, 

Around them coil its serpent length. 
And crush the glories of the realm. 

Oh ! saddest sight of all below, 

A nation's son its direst foe ! 

Leagued with the hostile Dane he calls 

His warriors mid Eblana's walls ; 

The foreign hirelings, thronging near, 

With plaudits fill the traitor's ear ; 

Their Northern Chieftain's dark array 

Already feed upon their prey ; 

The hills and homes of holiest years — 

The golden harvest fields are theirs : 

While be, with worse than demon-toil, 

Divides his father's land as spoil. 

Did there not in his bosom start 

One soft endearment of the heart. 

When he looked forth upon those hills, 



60 CLONTARF. 

Where, purer than their purest rills, 
Or dew which Nature's charm distils. 

Arose his boyhood's morn ? 
Was not that pulse by him possessed, 
Which even within the savage breast, 
Rules into weakness all the rest. 
And of all lands esteems the blest. 

The land where he was born ? 
Or, as his eye, in wandering round. 
Beheld each hallowed tomb or mound, 
That rose amid the Abbeys grey. 
Where slept his sires' insulted clay. 

Did he not fear their dead ? 
Did he not see their forms arise 
Between him and the vengeful skies, 

And call aloud for vengeance dread, 

E'en to the judgment time ? 
No ! he who would, wdth heart or hand, 
Betray or wound his native land. 
Cannot, one minutes' time, withstand 

The damning plunge of crime ! 
He told them of his high renown, 
jde told of his dishonored crown, 
He told how Brian's rival name 
Between him and the sunlight came ; 



CLONTARF. 61 

He told them of his Island's wealth. 



Its bays of strength and skies of health : 
" Around," he said, " a region lies 
Worthy the warrior's enterprize ; 
Unfurl the flag and bare the brand, 
And be ye dwellers in the land ; 
And swear ye, mid my father's towers, 
Maolmorda's royal cause is ours !" 

The Raven flag of Denmark then^ 

Flung on the winds its glittering flout, 
Shouted the Hypoborean men — 

The insulted heavens gave back the shout 
It boomed as though a curse were cast 
Upon some demon-peopled blast, 
And each with hell-reverberate voice 
Replied aloud " Rejoice — Rejoice !" 
Ebl ana's walls rung out that day 
With hurrying passion for the fray : 
And chiefs in sage advisement met, 

And each his favorite plan reviewed ; 
This were with chance of snare beset, 

And that were perilously pursued : 
To this opposed, to that inclined, 
As various council swayed their mind. 
5 



62 CLONTARF. 

At length each plan maturely weighed'^; 
'T was ruled to draw the battle blade 
And try their banners on the plain ; 
Where, should they wield the war in vainj 
And victory forsake their fray, 
Their ships were near them in the bay,. 
For succour prompt, with ready sail, 
To bear them safely from the Gael. 
But, pent within the city's bound, 
Where could that ocean-aid be found ? 
The wary foeman there would stand 
Waging his war on either hand ; 
And with an equal vantage reach 
Alike the city and the beach : 
But the broad field, impartial, gave 
Its triumph only to the brave — 
Its glory to the hand and heart 
That acted best the warrior's part. 

'T was done ! rang out the trumpet's sound ; 
The martial thousands gathered round ; 
The lances flashed in dazzling gleams 
Like sunlight on a hundred streams. 
And shone the banners, bright and fair, 
Of many gathered nations there. 



CLONTARF. 63 

First the choice men of Norway's strono- 
In armoured hundreds passed along ; 
Next Denmark's spell-weaved banner proud 
Moved hke a thunder-bearing cloud ; 
Maolmorda's standard marshalled then 
Lagenia's host of native men ; 
Hy-Falgia's princedom swelled the host, 

And Tuathal of the Liffey's line, 
Then bands from many a Baltic coast, 

And isles that mid its waters shine. 
And from Menavia's nearer clime ^ 
Britons to swell the march of crime ; 
Here Orkney's Earl his warriors filed, 
As their own island rough and wild ; 
And Caledonia's iron men 
From mountain, lake and pine-clad glen; 
And all a gallant witness gave 
How guilt and gold can win the brave. 

Onward they marched with warrior pride : 
At last their shouts in distance died. 
They reached the field as Evening threw 
Her mists around the mountains blue. 
They set the wardens for the night. 
And rested for the coming fight ; 



64 CLONTARF. 

Save here and there a foreign few, 
Who round their Hmbs the war-cloak threwy 
And, grouped together talked of home, 
And friends beyond the northern foam. 
Some told of love the thrilling story, 
And some of war the inspiring glory — 
And some life's refluent current traced, 
And friends of boyhood's time embraced. 
Some sung how those in war who fall 
Banquet in mighty Odin's hall ; 
How forth they go at morning's light, 
And meet, as earthly braves, in fight ; 
And how each wound which they receive 
Spontaneous heals ere fall of eve, 
How maids, whom Freya loved of old — "^ 
She whose hot tears are turned to gold — 
How they with love-lit eyes would there 
Serve them with beverage sweet and rare ■; 
And how their days would ever be, 
Like fruits of immortality. 
Guarded by Idwn to ripest mould 
And never suffered to grow old ; 
How they would lie beside the rill 
Where the o'ershadowing Ydrasil 
The banner of its leaves unfurled 
And greenly canopied the world ; 



CLONTARF. 55 

Or trace its mystic roots which fling « 
Their fibres, one to Wisdom's spring, 
And one to Urdar's holy well. 
And one to where the Nomas dwell. '^ 

Such mythologic tales for those. 

Would charm the night of its repose : 

But others, sterner far of heart, 

Rude, rugged, men would group apart, 

And sing the songs of wild delight 

That fir'd them for the coming fight. 

" Come," one would cry, " the banner spell ! 

Wake we the chorus wild and well, 

And teach those Islanders how we 

Bear Denmark's flag of destiny. 

And how, with incantations dread, 

Our maidens weave its mystic thread !" 



Sisters ! weave the banner well ! 
Weave it with the bloody spell ; 
Weave it for Destruction's track, 
Carnage red and Vengeance black ; 



66 CLONTARF. 

When its folds the foeman sees, 

Death shall spread his funeral wing^ 
Furies follow on the breeze 

And the Raven's triumph ring :^^ 
Broken spear and batter'd shield 
Fast shall fall beneath its field ! 
With the spirit of the spell, 
Sisters, weave the banner welL 
See — see — 
Listen — listen — • 
Through the air, 
Foul and fair. 
Spirits sing and lances ghsten. 

Let the foeman who would knov/ 
Where the truthful waters flow — 
Where the hero's pulse is strongest, 
Where young Love delights the longest, 
Where the hope of fame is dearest. 

Where the Future gloweth brighest, 
Where the smile of Beauty's fairest, 

And the care of earth is lightest — 
Let him to the Norseman yield. 
Fly through flood and fight through field, 
Let him love the banner spell 
Which we. Sisters, weave so well. 



CLONTARF. 67, 

See — see — 
Listen — listen — ■ 
Through the air, 
Foul and fair, 
Spirits sing and lances glisten. 

Weave the web, weave the woe. 
O'er its silken field of snow : 
Where the foe is, bear it thither, 
Let him waste and let him wither. 
By the spirit of our curse. 

Dwelling in the deepest hell ; 
By the deathful winds that nurse 
Ocean to his maddest swell ; 
By the lightning blue which knoweth 
Every victim ere it goeth — 
By the spirit of each spell 
Sisters weave the banner well. 

See — • see — 

Listen — listen — 

Through the air, . 

Foul and fair, ^-^, 

Spirits sing and lances glisten. 

Nay ! by my faith, such spells as these 
Might well set warrior hearts at ease ; 



68 



CLONTARF. 



Might make the very child a chief, 
If such but be their wild belief : 
Belief that setteth all aside 
And maketh captive Reason's pride. 

But mark what wonderment appears — 
Dilated eyes and listening ears — 

Mid yonder group of Danish men ? 
And mark that youth upon whose cheek 
The lily and carnation's streak, 

Alternate come and fade again. 
His garment seems not of their land, 
Not like his brow do theirs expand ; 
Their Northern lineage, rough and stern, 
You may not on his face discern ; 
Nor beareth he or hue or trace 
Of their rude Scandinavian race. 
There is a gentleness beside, 
Blent with a secret force of pride — ' 
A sweet serenity of mien, 
111 suited to this time and scene. 
Wearing as does that youth the bands 
Of foreign captors on his hands. 

The chief is seated in his tent : 
Before him stands with brow unbent 



CLONTARF. 69 

The captive youth, a timid smile 

Playing around his lips the while. 

" Wherefore, rash youth ! would'st thou invade 

Those lines by honor sacred made ? 

Didst thou not know that yonder bound 

Gainst every foe is jealous ground ? 

Or cam'st thou hither to survey 

How many lances we array — 

How many spears the Dane can bring 

O'er foam and field to aid thy king ? 

Woulds't thou, presumptuous boy, defy 

The lightnings of the Norseman's eye ? 

By Odin, 't is a deed of fear 

To play thy beardless daring here — ^ 

Think'st thou thy years our hearts disarm 

Of power or right defied to harm ? 

If so twere well to teach the rule 

Which ever guides our battle school ; 

That foes who seek to know must feel 

The strength — the justice of our steel. 

Yet, ere thy captors bear thee hence 

Haply thoud 'st justify defence ; 

And 't were not well unheard to spoil 

Thy errand of chivalric toil. 

Speak, wherefore — Hah ! whom have we here r' 

Guards hence awhile the captive bear ; 



70 CLOtTTARF. 

And mark ye let the morrow's sun 
See battle lost or battle won — 
Be not a moment's hazard given 

Of rescue, counsel, or device — 
If limb be touched, or link be riven, 

Your life-blood be the periled price— 
Whate'er our banner's fortune be, 
The captive's fate remains with me !" 

Strange words are these, and stranger still, 
The cause of this most lenient will. 
And that perturbed chief — in truth, 
He ne'er before beheld that youth. 
What sympathy has sprung apace 
From sight of that young captive's face ^ 
Were he endowed with spell or name 
To make or mar the battle's game. 
He had not more transfixed that chief 
Than in that time, so strange and brief. 
No look of suppliance appealed ; 
No word — no sign — ■ no sigh revealed, 
Nor feature, e'en a feeling's change ; 
Nought save the young blood's usual range 
Was there ; the scene is wondrous strange I 



CLONTARF. 71 



The morn is up — the mists are furled 
Like banners of a peaceful world, 
Nor shadow far as eye can see 
Soils the blue heaven's infinity. 
Along the lines at either side, 
On left and right the leaders ride ; 
Here the Lagenian plum'd and proud 
Calls on his panting ranks aloud ; 
And there the Dalgais' princes shine 
Like meteor-lights from line to line : 
And now a steed of faultless mould, 
Caparisoned in gems and gold, 
Is led before the royal tent. 
His neck in noble beauty bent 
Like a bow before the shaft is sent ; 
Dilated eye and step of pride. 
As though a king alone should guide 

The obedience of his reign ; 
His glossy shoulders catch each ray, 
As, fired with wantonness of play, 

He paws the tented plain. 

Forth comes the king arrayed for fight ; 
The trumpets ring with loud delight ; 
Long, lusty shouts the welkin fill 
From thirty thousand hearts, until 



73 CLONTARP. 

Reverberate from hill to hill. 



The nation's gladness runs : 
It reached the Day-God's dazzling throne 
It reached the world's embracing zone 
Such soul was in that thunder tone ! 
"'T is waked by Erin's hearts alone ; 
And, in the hour of battle, known 

Only to Erin's sons. 
! ne'er did sunlight, since the morn 
When the bright, rosy world was born, 
O'er panaromic sight expand, 
More bright, more lofty or more grand. 
Not Marathon of classic name, 
Nor Sparta, heir of god-like fame, 
Nor the sad waves that swept the shore 
Deep dyed in Lacedemons gore, 
More noble blood for freedom gave. 
Or filled a more immortal grave, 
Or twined a wreath for freedom's brow, 
Less perishing, Clontarf, than thou. 

Onward the royal warrior rode, 
A crown of light his helmet glow'd, 
Salvation's emblem in his hand 
His only sceptre of command. 
The storms of age had not all quench'd 
The fire that lit his eye, 



CLONTARF. 73» 

The waste of age had not all blenchM 

The color, rough and high, 
That glow'd upon his aged cheek. 
Like autumn evening's sunset streak : 
Awhile, with all a patriot's pride, 

He viewed the far extending host, 
Men who, long marshall'dby his side, 

Had never fame or honor lost. 
He saw their princes in the field, 
Princes who knew the brand to wield ; 
Not such as these of modern time. 
Who know of courage but the crime ; 
Not the adventurous virtue bold 
That fired the manher hearts of old. 
He marked Ultonia's princely men. 
Fresh-hearted in the field again. 
As beautiful in mien and motion. 
As waves that tread the wakening ocean ; 
Here Munster stood in centred might. 

Spirits no foeman ever bowed ; 
Here Liffey's waters pure and bright 
Reflected in its joyous flight 

The Meathians and the Dalgais proud : 
On the far left the warriors shone 
Of Cavan, Donegal, Tyrone, 
7 



74 CLCTNTARF. 

And good Armagh, upon whose brow 
The classic wreath is fresh e'en now. 
Here strono; as sur2:es Boreas makes 
Stood tlie proud clansmen of the Lakes, 
And here thy i vincely banner flew 
Chief of romance, ODonohue. 
And though not yet his features wear 
The tufted growth of manhood's year. 
Not least among the gallant line 
Did Desmond's crested honors shine. 
All in magnificent display, 

Such as Clontarf has seen not since. 
When from the mountains to the bay 
Each clanship stood in proud array 

Beneath the banner of its prince - 

" Sons of the never-vanquished men, 
Who never wore a tyrant's chain, 

The foe are on your fields again : 

With whom shall they to-night remain ? 

Upon this day — this sacred day — 

Thor.e fiends invite the coming fray. 

Wit ess, high Heaven ! they seek this strife 

On Calvary's day of death and life ; 

And be for better or for worse 
The issue of the fight, 



CLONTARF. 75 

Fall not the Godhead's veiigeaiice-curse 

Upon our land to-night. 
But nerve our hearts Avith Freedom's force 

And vindicate the right. 
Soldiers ! your causo is that of Heaven, 
By whom to you this I:Je was given ; 
This sacred Isle, the brave and blest. 
The ocean-empire of the West. 
Here are the heroes of our land, 
From mountain top to level strand : 
Be every heart then stern and brave. 
As headland frowning o'er the wave, 
And every thought and every deed. 
Such as befit your country's need. 
Yon slaves ! why seek they thus your soil .? 
They seek it but as hirelings' spoil ! 
No lofty principle of right 
Has mailed their leaders for the fight ; 
And their fierce numbers — what are they } 
Mere masses of dishonored clay ; 
Soulless and moulded for the hour, 
With but, of man, the instinctive pov/er ; 
So poor of glory's element, 
A million make not one event. 
Say ! shall your land of field and flood 
Be to such things a bribe of blood ? 



76 CLONTARF. 

Shall helots light their household fires 
E'en on the hearth-stones of your sires — 
Hearths where they lit the cheerful blaze. 
And heard the tales of other days ; 
And you, e'en mid your native plains, 
Bend to the thraldom of the Danes, 
Who seek to rob your glorious dead 

From even the heart's memorial place, 
And from the very earth v^^ould tread 

Your name, your language, and your race ? 
Forbid it honor, glory, all 

Of proud below or pure above. 
On which the Freeman loves to call. 

The homes and altars of our love ! 
Shall yonder banner, which has shone 

In Freedom's galaxy for years. 
Be dragged from heaven and trampled on, 

By foreign foes in blood and tears. 
And Erin, proud, and free, and brave. 
Become a suppliant and slave ?" 
Here paused the King ; and, thus, a band 

Of minstrels catching up the strain, 
Invoked the spirit of the land 

Her lofty glories to sustain, 
And guard the nation and the throne, 
By her own free-born men alone : 



CLONTARr. 77 



Bear the Sun-Burst through the land, 
Wake the spirit's thunder, 

Launch it on the Norseman's bands, 
Rend their ranks asunder. 

Though our Freedom far should flee, 
And her shrines be lonely, 

Let our mountains trodden be 
By our children only. 

Crush, yourselves, the civil woe 
Waked within our borders ; 

Though your brothers be the foe, 
Be yourselves the warders. 

Warm the serpent into life — 

It hath less of danger. 
Than to give your country's strife 

To the subtle stranger. 

Heed ye less the native slave 

Than the foreign fcfeman, 

•7* 



78 CLONTARF. 

'T was her sons revenge that gave 
Hellas to the Roman !^^ 

What of Country recketh he — 

He the royal traitor, 
He who builds his victory 

By the foes that hate her ? 

By the graves in which your sires 
Have reposed for ages, 

By the songs of Minstrel lyres, 
Telling of your sages — 

By the fires that never die 

On your holy altars. 
By the lightning bolts on high. 

Armed for him who falters — 

By the homes that call ye men. 
By the hearts that love ye,. 

By the banner proud, again 
Waving free above ye — 

By the towers that round ye stand, 
By the hopes ye cherish. 

By the glories of your land, 
Rescue all or perish ! 



CLONTARF. 79 

One loud, far echoing cheer expressed 
The rapture of the warder's breast ; 
The simultaneous burst of sound 
Was answered from the hills around, 
As though far centuries' mouldered men 
Had started into life again, 
And broke the silence of the grave 
To swell the war cry of the brave. 
A sterner mood of feeling now 

Glowed like the last, deep, mellowed beam 
Of sunset, on the Monarch's brow. 

As he resumed his lofty theme. 

" Sons of the isle ! behold the Dane, 
Who would your clime and creed profane : 
They 've chosen this day, this holiest day, 
Since earth first felt creation's ray ; 
This day when Calvary's purple tide 
Proclaimed to earth a God had died ; 
When the high temple, rent in twain, 
Was conscious of His heart's red rain ! 
Well, be it so, if such their will. 
The God who saved is with us still." 
Thus saying, Brian slowly raised 
Before the host's uplifted eyes — 



80 CLONTARF. 

Dread sign, that strengthened as they gazed ■ 

The Cross of Calvary's sacrifice."' 
" Now for your Freedom, fellow-men ! 
Your land beholds your deeds again. 
A thousand years, unborn as yet, 
Are panting, till this Sun has set, 
By his historic light to know 
Their earthly future's weal or woe. 
Bear ye once more the spear and shield, 
As oft I've seen in many a field ; 
And where j^our banners high appear 
In thickest battle be ye th. re ! 
From yonder mountains looking down 
In proud and reverend rcnov/n, 
To the last wave that laves your strand, 
This is our own — our father's land ; 
And freemen — vv'arriors, in the fight, 
May God defend our country's right." 

The octogenarian King would fain 
Amid his warrior ranks remain ; 
But they who kr.jw his aged power 
Saw 't was unsuited for this hour ; 
The rush, the shock of shield and spear 
Were far too much for age to bear ; 



CLONTARF. 

And more his country needed now 
The presence of his kingly brow, 
To guide her through her future way, 
Than even his falchion's lightning-play. 
In vain they urged — in vain they prayed - 
" Should he at such a time be stayed — 
He who had felt his chiefest pride 
At board or battle by their side — 
Could he sit idly by while they 
Perished beneath the crimson fray ; 
They — they his children ? — if they part 
Be it expiring heart to heart !" 

Thus did they make alternate plea, 
But none less yieldingly than he ; 
Until they urged the duteous weight 
Of rank which monarchs owe the state ; 
The dangers which beset the land, 
Which none could check, but he command 
The accidents, with discord rife, 
Which hung like fates upon his life ; 
And showed how triumph e'en were dim 
For Erin's honor without him. 

Then did the Monarch slowly yield : 
He turned in silence from the field : 



81 



82 CLONTARF. 

Entered his tent — and humbly there 
The Throne of Love addressed in prayer. 

Say didst thou e'er at morning mark 
The clouds collecting thick and dark, 
Converging threateningly on high, 
From either side the brooding sky, 
Like spirits breathing not a breath, 
Yet charged with all the blasts of death ; 
The earth beneath silent with dread, 
The sea one world of molten lead, 
The air hot, damp and thick around, 
While Nature stood as terror bound. 
Transfixed and motionless and dumb. 
As though another World had come. 
And she in agony sublime 
Heard the expiring throb of Time ; 
And all that now was fair and bright 
Were turned to gross, unnatural night, 
To which no sun one ray could give. 
And even Man was pained to live — 
Did'st thou then upward look and mark 
The meeting of those war-clouds dark ; 
Watch the blue lightning's ceaseless flash, 
And hear loud mingling, crash on crash ; 
And the full storm, through morning nurst, 
Shake, with the thunder's volleying burst. 



CLONTARF. 83 

The deep-foundationed earth, and heaven, 

To horrid chaos crushed and riven ; 

While tempests' rush and surges' roll 

Seemed launched from thundering pole to pole. 

And paralyzed was Reason's power, 

Past, Present, Future, in that hour ? 

If such thou 'st witnessed thou may'st feel 

The war of multitudinous steel ; 

The shout and shock of host and steed. 

The horrid pause, the rush, and then, 
By breathing from exhaustion freed. 

The wild assault of desperate men ; 
Until the elements of strife 
Lost all but nature's love of life. 
Heavens ! 't was a thrilling sight to see, 

The anguish of the scene apart, 
Tliat burst of mountain chivalry, 

That mad volcano of the heart. 
Pouring its bloody lava down 
Througli the fair earth's empurpled brown, 
'Till so profusely did the tide 
Of life gush forth on either side,'* 
That Nature mourned for many a day 
The havoc of that dreadful fray. 



84 CLONTARF. 

Rude was the art of warfare then, 
Strength swayed the destiny of men ; 
No missile then was poised to reach, 
With measured curve, the fatal breach ; 
Nor chemistry's ingredient strength, 
To count the interval of length ; 
No rocket's meteoric glare 
Woke sudden day in midnight air ; 
No mine with subterranean aid 
Engulphed the dauntless escalade j 

No column's geometric range, 

No echelon of rapid change, ^ 

No square of adamantine shield, 

That glory of the modern field. 

But though of scientific fray 

Poor knowledge had that distant day, 

The moral of their conflict, now, 
Surviving ages of despair, 

Freshens the heart and cheers the brow, 
And wakes the throb of Freedom there, 

And such to her is holier far 

Than crimsoned fields Peninsular. 

Here may we think, in written page — 
Meet task for student or for sage — 



CLONTARF> 85 

How England, rude, imbecile lay^ 

To even her fears a constant prey : 

No lingering voice of glory told 

That Man was there — the lofty-souled ; 

Degenerate, fallen, unredeemed 

By brow that lowered, or eye that gleamed, 

Even for a second forth, to show. 

How Freedom's storm but slept below ; 

While your high deeds even to this day 

Run, brightning with undimmed renown, 
And scattering signals on their way. 

Though generations kindling down ; 
And to our still chivalric heart. 
Pulses of living fire impart : — 
How unity, that spell of power 
O ! that it had outlived that hour — - 
Made Erin — valley, hill and plain — 
Freedom's invincible domain ; 
Her glories radiating far 
From sunset to the morning star. 
Oh not too well can Erin's youth 
Nurse in their soul this living truth : 
No tale of fancy pictured out 
In hues of legendary doubt ; 
But Erin's pride and England's shame, 
In blazonry of written fame, 
8 



86 CLONTARr* 

Such as weak Prejildice might fear 
To see in kindling glories there. '^ 

'T was set of sun, and Freedom blessed 
His pathway down the golden west. 
Defeated now on every side 
The Norsemen's flight was wild and wide i 
Yet oft they turned in broken strife, 
Nor yielded even with yielding life j 
But lifted oft and oft again 
The sword of faint but desperate men. 
But Broder, Denmark's loftiest chief^ 
Kindling for future wrath his grief, 
Fled, with some hearts of dastard fear^ 
The honors of their shield and spear, 
And, in a neighboring wood concealed, 
Forsook, afraid to die or yield. 
The fate of heroes on the field. 
Thence seeing Brian's banner shine 
Remote from guard or battle's line, 
Anew their fevered vengeance burned ; 

And, lightning-footed, o'er the slain 
He and his maddening followers turned, 

And reached the confines of the plain. 
Where stood the royal tent, nor kern 
Nor chief the danger to discern. 



CLONTARF. 87 

There frantic for the murderous feat. 



No mailed warrior did they meet ; 
No king exulting o'er a strife 
Purchased by such a waste of life : 
But a meek saint, on bended knee'^ 
In prayer translated, spirit-free — 
His lowly head of helmet bare. 
With eighty winters' reverend hair — 
Knelt, unperplexed of care's restraints, 
The monarch of " the Isle of Saints :" 
While at his side one gentle boy 
Shared in the monarch's pious joy. 

But little reverence had they 
For Brian's hairs of honored grey, 
Or youth which softens savage men ; 
Vengeance alone was monarch then : 
And in that name with Brian's blood 

That youth's in savage death was blent 
The old, the valorous and good, 

The young, the fair and innocent. 
Drawing from Brian's gushing side 
His blood-red weapon, Broder cried 
" Witness ye warriors, mine 's the pride, 
That by this sword has Brian died !"'^ 



88 CLONTARF. 

And Scandinavian legends tell, 

That battle-day possessed a spell 

Fatal to Erin's king as told 

By oracle renowned of old. ^^ 

Of those who did high deeds that day, 

And shared the triumphs of the fray. 

Was Desmond browed with laurels bright, 

As ever bloomed on field of fight. 

Full of the freedom Greece had sung, 

To which he too his lyre had strung. 

Victoriously its spirit played. 

In every impulse of his blade ; 

And where lie raised its shadowy spell 

A triumph followed as it fell. 

! innate strength of freedom, springing, 

Not in an arid Avaste of strife. 
But all its mystic freshness bringing 

From founts of living truth and life ; 
One warrior arm, by thee sustained. 
Were victory gainst a hundred chained : 
One heart, one only, nerved by thee, 
Might set a million bondsmen free. 

Hark to the deep and solemn sound ! 

The funeral train advance, 
Though the old abbey's burial ground, 



CLONTARF. 89 



While gleams the fitful flash around 

Of crozler, helm and lance. 
Moving religiously slow, 
In meet companionship of woe. 
Though the dim portals of that pile 

The monarch's bier is borne, 
And through the many pillared aisle 

The island-children mourn : 
For with their monarch half the pride 
And glory of the triumph died ; 
Albeit he sank in victory's blaze. 
Laurelled and crowned and full of days. 



From the depths I 've cried to thee 

Lord my supplication hear ; 
To my poor repentant plea 

Lend, oh Lord, a lenient ear : 
For if thou our sins retain 
Who the judgment will sustain ? 
De Profundis ! 
8* 



90 CLONTARF. 

With Thee only pardon dwells — 
With thee mercy's rich reward ; 

'T is that such thy mandate tells 
I have waited thee oh Lord. 

In his word I Ve rested long : 

In the* Lord my hope is strong. 
De Profundis ! 

From the mornino- watch till night 
In the Lord let Israel hope, 

For his mercy in its might 

Will Redemption's portals ope. 

And he w^ill at length reclaim 

Israel from the paths of shame. 

De Profundis ! 



The funeral dirge was sung and said ; 
The tomb received the royal dead : 
The solemn train, in long array. 
Retraced its melancholy way ; 
The winds that swept the hollow dell 
Pealed Nature's tributary knell ; 
And the pure dew-drops from the skies 
Seemed tears from, planetary eyes. 



CLONTARF. 



'T was past : and Desmond sought once more 

That maiden by the southern shore ; 

With love as warm as ever flung 

Its truthful radiance round the young. 

He fancied her, not mute and sad, 

Communing there with Memory only, 
Whose presence seldom maketh glad 

The soul of meditation lonely : 
No ! even in fancy, Desmond's mind 

Could no such suffering frame for her 
Whose heart was in his ov/a enshrined, 

And he the accepted worshipper : 
But on to hours, which every minute — 
Each with a panting prophet in it — 
Brought nearer to his heart, he flew 

And formed an empire of his own, 
A Realm of Love, where Beauty drew 

A magic circle round her throne : 
Where Glory, crowned on Freedom's field, 

A field for youthful prowess meet. 
Would bring his laurels and his shield. 

And lay them at Mononia's feet ; 
While she the tribute gift would take. 
And bless it for the donor's sake : 
And there the lovely and the brave 
Share, each, the bliss the other gave. 



92 CLONTARF. 

Alas ! alas, why does the earth 
To treacherous fancy e'er give birth ; 
Why hope we here beyond our breath, 
While e'en that hope is winged with death ; 
Why do we build upon desire 

Joys which 't were fruitless to command ; 
Why tell the ocean to retire, 

Or set its limit on the strand ; 
Why listen to the courtier, Hope, 

To whom no trust of earth is given ? 
Why do we read our horoscope 

By dreams of earth, not stars of heaven ? 
The boldest astrologic sage 
Ne'er calculates from earthly page. 

He sought his Love ; but sought in vain : 
Nor cot, nor headland, glen nor plain, 
Nor that green bower whence the dart 
Of Love in ambush reached his heart — 
No place of these he wandered by 
With hasty step or heedless eye ; 
But there he found of her no trace 
As though they never saw her face : 
As though her beauty's joyous light 
Had never made their flowers more bright. 



CLONTARF. 93 

His castled home which lifted high 

Its time-worn turrets to the sky, 

He sought with that absorbing grief 

Which ill beseems a victor chief : 

And there, in sorrow's dark excess, 

Dwelt in ascetic loneliness. 

The joys of banquet hall, the chase, 

The scenes of that romantic place — 

Lake, meadow, lawn and wooded height, 

His by hereditary right — 

No soothing influence possessed, 

No calm for his perturbed breast. 

Absence, which seemed of years before. 

Could now by hours be counted o'er : 

It seemed but yesterday Avhen she. 

Hallowed his heart with lip of love. 
And look that told, more eloquently, 
A heart as true as even he 

Could seek beneath those worlds above, 
Where souls restored to heavenly youth. 
Drink of the founts of living truth. 
Oh ! had she erred or fallen away, 

A meteor from her native sphere — 
Fallen through the etherial array 

Of light and love that bound her here, 

Attractive, beautiful and fair ? 



94 CLONTARF. 

Away the foul, dishonoring thought, 
With doubtful depths of treason fraught ! 
No ! no, that star was never rent 
From Love's harmonious firmament. 

Night her broad wings had just unfurled, 
And brooded o'er the dreaming world : 
As he, in wild conjecture, turning 

Chaotic thoughts, beheld afar 
A moving light, now brightly burning, 

Now twinkling like a timid star. 
Through the dark boughs, that lengthening stood. 
Flinging deep shadows o'er the flood. 
And, stretching downward, darkened ever 
The course of that romantic river ; 
Save where the sun's unclouded light 
Peeped in on its eternal night. 
Here winding through the meadows wide 
The river flowed with ampler tide ; 
Here mid a leafy colonnade 
The banks a narrower channel made ; 
And here, detached from ruin grey, 
The stormy fragments fret its way ; 
And swifter now it hurries by. 

Increasing with a smoother motion ; 



CLONTARF. 95 

More swiftly now the waters fly, 

As eager to embrace the ocean : 
Now, sheeting smooth, they flash and leap 
A fall of fearful fathoms deep, 
RecoiUng in the dread rebound 
With agonies of broken sound. 
Now, free from its precipitous force, 
It flows with less unquiet course ; 

Fair, open fields of pleasant green, 

And undulating hills between ; 

While sylvan grove and bank-side bower, 

Of gathering fruit and balmy flower. 

Spring up around rejoicing ever, 

In the calm beauty of that river. 

Wherefore, by whom and why that light 

Invaded there the secret night ? 

Seeks there some remnant of that band 

Of Danes still wandering through the land, 

By stratagem of foul surprise — 

By open guilt or hidden guise — 

To compass him in lonely hour. 

Or lay the torch-fire to his tower ? 

Full well he felt a chieftain's life 

Redeeming sacrifice might be, ^ 



96 CLONTARF, 

To Denmark vanquished in that strife, 

That blighting of her chivalry. 
He breathed no word of doubt or fear, 
Yet deemed not light of danger near ; 
But wakeful vigil nightly kept, 
Lest foes surprize him while he slept : 
" What will vindictive foes not do, 
To honor false, to vengeance true ?" 

One evening looking from his tower, 

Just as the moon, her radiance flinging, 
Silvered the dews on leaf and flower. 

And their " good night" the birds were singing, 
He saw in stooping attitude 

A Norseman by the river side. 
Heaping a pile of arid wood. 

Where a few naked rocks divide 
His heritance from other soil. 
" Strange task," he said, " for stranger's toil :" 
Each passing moment but defined 
The late conjecture of his mind. 
His fears conviction strong became, 
" That heap was destined for a flame. 
And was it e'en this night to glow, 
To guide the well directed foe 
O'er ftie else treacherous waves below .^" 



CLONTARF. 97 

A few stout clansmen, stern and bold, 
He summoned, but no purpose told : 
'* Seize yonder outlaw!" It was done. 
Thus far at least some hope is won ! 
Some hope ? alas ! of what ? — of whom ? 
No^matter, hope can light a tomb, 
Though dark as death !" But what is wild, 

Or dark or fanciful to Hope — 
To her who e'en at death has smiled, 
And, waving her eternal wand, 
Saw worlds of life and light beyond ; 

And bade their golden portals ope. 
While joyous years, nor few nor far, 

In rosy eircies lay reclining, 
Each with her destined morning-star 

Upon her cloudless forehead shining ; 
Their wings of brightness even now. 

Though yet unfolded, downward casting 
The radiance, o'er the mortal's brow, 

Of love, and beauty everlasting. 
O ! ne'er did realm of glory ope 
Too bright for man to tread with Hope ! 
This very night — nay even this hour 

May Desmond meet his long lost dove j 
And heaven upon his spirit shower, 

Free, bright and pure, the dews of love. 
9 



98 CLONTARF. 

The moon had sank, the night wind bleW 

In fitful gusts and strong, 
And clouds with now and then a view 
Of scanty starlight struggling through, 

Swept fierce and dark along. 
Hoarsely the cumbrous branches sighed 

As with a living woe, 
To which the river's voice replied 

In murmurs deep below- 
Darkness and silence else was all 
From earth to heaven's extended pall. 
Alone went Desmond forth, awhile 
He stood above the mimic pile ; 
And fain would waive the desperate need 
That urged and justified the deed : 
But dastard treachery hath no claim 
On aught that beareth human name . 

He bore away the brambly heap. 

Far down toward the river's side, 
Where first the impulse of the leap 

Impels the current of the tide ; 
The spark applied, serene and clear 

The beacon-fire arose, 
" Spirits of justice now appear ! 

Thus Desmond hails such foes ! 



CLONTART*. 99 

Be hushed ye winds lest even a breath 

Disturb the dreadful pause ; 
Ye starry witnesses of death, 

Now justify my cause : 
And thou, oh Night ! thy pall extend ; 

Fair Night ! whose gentle reign 
Those fiends with fire and blood would rendj 
And, where thy forest rites ascend, 

Thy sanctuary profane, 
And make thy shrines of peaceful gloom 
One hideous, vast, volcanic tomb !" 
Hark ! was 't the ripple through the grass 
Low drooping where the waters pass, 
Or stealthy dipping of some oar 
That ventures from the farther shore ? 
Clearer the sound, and still more clear 
It grows on Desmond's anxious ear : 
Now voices as of terror rise, 
And louder now awake the skies. 
Hush was it not his uttered name 
In agonizing accents came? 
Again a wild, protracted shriek 
That blanched with fear the listener's cheek, 
Then with distinct and rapid dash. 

As struggling with the rushing wave, 
A plunge — a pause — a stifled crash,' 

Up from the cataract's sleepless grave. 



100 CLONTARF, 

He started up as from a dream 

Of all things horrible : wild voices 
Rose from the bosom of the stream, 

As when the deepest hell rejoices ; 
And forms unearthly seemed to tread. 
Where'er his will of motion led ; 
At every step the woods around 
Seemed tongues and utterance to have found ; 
The black, thick clouds above him broke. 

And lightnings winged the hour with fire, 
The thunders deep denouncement spoke, 

And winds awoke their funeral choir ; 
While earth as yielding up its dead 
Convulsive seemed with horrid dread. 
And haunted conscience filled, with fear. 
All sights and sounds to eye and ear. 
He reached his home with trembling pace ; 

His vassals stood aghast. 
As they beheld the hollowed face. 

Where iron passions passed, 
And left as records of their ire 
Corroding lines of graven fire. 

Transformed as 'twere to breathing stone, 
Till morning's hour he dwelt alone ; 



OLONTARF. IGl 

Nor joy nor peace, it brought to him, 
His heart was sad, his soul was dim : 
He looked as he outlived the span 
Of nature's usual years to man. 

^^ Bring forth" he cried, " the captive Dane- 

And thou my trusty friend, — 
Thou in our audience wilt remain 

And usual council lend. 
We have strange task whate'er it be, 
Of death and fear and mystery !" 

The Dane appeared ; his step was slow. 

Far less with weight of age than woe j 

His lips stood lividly apart 

As though to ense his breathless heart ; 

And his bright sunken eye did seem, 

Such wildness in its fixed beam. 

Delirious from some horrid dream, 

" Soldier !" said Desmond, '^' is thy pride 

So far debased thou must conspire, 
Upon our rightful soil and tide, 

To light the dark avenger's fire t 
Hath not the field of generous strife 
Fair guerdon for a soldier's life ? 
9* 



102 CL0NTARF. 

" Blest is this hour !'^ the Dane replied, 
This is the time for which I 've sighed ; 
When I may to thine ear unfold 
A tale that better were untold : — 
That Faith herself might justly deem 
The fiend had woven for some foul dream. 
Doubless on yonder banks there be 
Men leagued against thy home and thee ; 
For since Clontarf's eventful day 
The spirits, fallen in that fray. 
Have from their rest in Odin's hall, 
Rung in our ears the atonement call. 
Of all thy country's warriors there. 
Thine was the sword of darkest fear : 
Where'er appeared thy flaming crest 
It blazed, the beacon of the rest ; 
Where'er the war-clouds blackest met, 

There was it shiningly revealed 
Aloft, as on a headland set ; 

The triumph-planet of the field. 
Called to revenge we sought this place, 
A foe to thee and all thy race. 

But though I be of Denmark's name 
And 'gainst thee lifted spear and shield 
In the red strife of honor's field. 

Yet — even yet, a stronger claim 



CLONTARF. 103 

Hath won my heart, all claims above — • 
Woman's devotedness of love. 
Much have I heard of Desmond's name 
Thy lineage and chivalric fame ; 
But dazzling fame and lineage bright 

Are lost in dark eclipse, 
Before the love-praise and the light 
Of vrorth, as sadly, day and night, 

Told by Mononia's lips !" 
" Heavens !" Desmond cried, " even now to thee, 
Wealth, honor, power, life, liberty, 
If she but lives!" 

" But yester-morn 
She lived !" 

" Since then ?" 

" These chains I've worn I" 

" Speak ! be each word with lightning fraught, 
That I may read thy inmost thought !" 
Resumed he — " On Clontarf there strayed 
A youth in rustic garb arrayed. 
Within our lines : " A spy — a spy !" 
From guard to chieftain was the cry. 
The spy was seized, but to the chief 

The captive answered not ; 
But stood in strange and frozen griefy 

Nor friend nor comfort sousht : 



104 CLONTARF. 

Nor seemed the searcher's gaze to fear, 

Nor frown to heed, nor threat to hear. 

Confined in fetters in our tent 

Nor word nor sigh bespoke lament ; 

And the brief questions of our peers 

Reply received in silent tears. 

Battle and death which darkness brought 

To many a brilliant crest, 
Mid every change was suffered not 

To wound the captive's breast. 
Nor in defeat, nor yet in flight, 

Did aught of rudeness dare 
The bird to ruffle or affright 

Chained from its native air. 
The tale of grief was nightly told 
And listened to by young and old ; 
Of whom at length to me alone 
The captive's secret heart was known. 
We leagued a few, who felt like me, 
To set the gentle captive free. 
One to erect a beacon light 

Where calmly flows yon tide ; 
One to direct the forest flight. 

And one the skiff" to guide ; 
That one so good and fair should be 
Restored to home and hope and — thee. 



CLONTARF. 105 

Pure as the dew in morning's &un ; — 
MoNONiA, captive — both in one ! 

Come, vassals, come ! vt^hat darkness now 
Spreads o'er your chieftain's eye and brow. 
What demon-power — what mystic dart 
Hath in an instant pierced his heart, 
In which the lost Mononia's name 
Should kindle Eden's altar flame ? 
With fixed eye and prisoned breath, 
And lips that seemed the porch of death. 
He lay like one for whom no more 
Could Time one pulse of life restore. 

The day passed anxiously away. 

Mid watch and wail and dark surmise. 

And some would cross themselves and pray. 
And some, with fear-dilated eyes. 

Would tell how at no distant day. 

The sad Ban-shee or evil fay,^^ 

Followed, for some uncancelled crime,. 

Their race from immemorial time. 

That night a calmer mood of thought 
A change to Desmond's spirit brought, 
But a mute prophecy of brow 
Brooded in fixedness of woe 



106 CLONTARF. 

Above his eyes, revealing now 
The troubled heart belovr : 
Passion and impulse had no power 
In thought or action of the hour : 
Again he summoned up the Dane 
Struck from his limbs the captive's chain, 
And with him spoke in converse stern 
Apart from vassal, guard or kern. 

^^ Bring torches each my faithful men, 
And lead our pathway to the "glen." 

They went, they came with torches bright, 

And led into the dusky night. 

Through fallen branch and tangled weed, 

The devious way they bent ; 
Here lay a path of level speed. 
And here the cautious torch would lead 

A perilous descent ; 
And now the caverned rocks replied 
To rushing of the distant tide ; 
And now its current they pursued, 
By reedy marge and gloomy wood ; 
Less indistinct and less the sound 

Of swifter waters now. 
And now, dashed by the giant bound, 

The spray besprent their brow. 



CLONTARP. lot 

Oh ! there are doubts twere crime to break, 

Whose sweet allusions ope 
To many a tempest-shaken peak — - 

Bright Ararats of hope — 
Where the earth-weary and oppressed 
For even one trusting hour can rest. 
Yet tis a spirit-wasting thing 
Thus, fleeing from ourselves to cling 
To the delusion — thus to clasp 
A moment with convulsive grasp. 
Lest Truth should dash forever out 
The lingering hope that lived on doubt ^ 
Thus in afflicted mood of mind, 
Wilhng to search yet loth to find, 
Did Desmond with his followers reach 

To where the river's gradual power 
Had formed and shaped a fairy beach 

O'er-arched with willow, shrub, and flower—- 
Where the convolvulus, with bell 

Of silver, hung in white festoon. 
Through which the winds, when evening fell. 

Sung mystic legends to the moon — 
Romances quaint of that lone place. 
Traditions of the spirit-race. 

What a convulsive shudder ran 

O'er the rapt chieftain, as though death, 



i08 CLONTARI'. 

Seizing the agonizing man, 

Had froze life's current in a breath. 
A groan of deep sepulchral sound 

So rose on the enchanted air, 
You scarce could hear the living bound 

Of the hoarse waters rushing near, 
As down he fell and hid his face 
And cried, in agonizing tone ; 
" At last — at last can I embrace 

My lost — forever now my own !" 
There — there within that fairy bay, 

She, who had dared for love to roam. 
Cold as the sculptured marble lay. 

Wrapped in a shroud of silver foam 
Wove by the spirit of the wave. 
To deck Mononia's sinless grave-* 

Oh ! the wild drama of that night, 

Illumined by the lurid light 

Of peat-wood torches which the spray 

Reflected fiercely ray on ray ; 

The night-wind's low funereal song 

Booming the forest-depths among. 

The fairy temple round them spread, 

With flowery arabesque, o'er head. 

From which bright wreaths of wild-flowers hung 

Above the dead — the fair and young — 



CLONTARF. 109 



Who perished in the faithless tide, 
O'er which she sought her lover's side ; 
The rugged group of bronzed men, 

Enfolded each in martial cloak. 
Like guardians of some wizard glen. 
Who there the midnight vigil kept 
While some enchanted maiden slept, 
Nor visage raised, nor utterance woke, 
To wake with even one soothing sound 
The horrid silence thi'oned around. 

And t'was a sad, a thrilling sight 
To see the funeral pomp that night -, 
Nor throbbed a heart around that bier, 
That did not shed its tribute tear 
Above that sainted child of love — 
The spirit's self-commissioned dove, 
That perished in her pride of flight — 
The daughter of departed light. 
The starhght had not yet withdrawn. 
And, dimly grey, the feeble dawn 

Trembled upon the horizon's brim, 
When through the dark and solemn aisle 
Of the antique monastic pile 

Arose the funeral hymn. 
10 



110 CLONTARF. 

They sang of dust returned to dusty 
Of spirits yielding up their trust, 

Of mercy and of sins forgiven, 
Of faith, and hopefulness and love,, 
And everlasting joys above, 

By Siloa's stream that flows in Heaven. 
They sang of the seraphic choir 

Innumerous, that, round the throne, 
On wings of life's essential fire. 

Forever spread their shining zone ; 
And of the virgins pure arrayed 

In snow-white garments, — those who passed 
Like flowers that on their branches fade 

Untouched — unsullied to the last. 
Singing of heaven they sang of her 

Who lay amid them on her bier, 
For she had been a worshipper, 

And oft had bent her brow in prayer, 
Within that venerable pile ; 

There oft her heaven-inspired soul 
Beamed forth, in many a sacred smile. 

As she beheld the incense roll 
High o'er the altar's awful rite. 

Type of the heaven-ward breath of prayer,, 
And happy, in her spirit's night. 

Sought light and hope and refuge there ; 



CLONTARF. Ill 

For never did her heart forget 
Red Calvary's uncancelled debt. 

And when the dirge was duly sung 
Above the beautiful and young, 
They laid Mononia's virgin form 

Within the grave of final rest^ 
Where earliest sunbeams, fond and warm, 

Would nurse the wild flowers o'er her breast, 
And shed, as pure as Nature gave. 
Their evening tears above her grave. 

Not sternly, like a warrior, then 
>Stood Desmoj!?d mid those cowled men — 
Monastic men who had grown grey 
Watching the world from day to day : 
Who knew its nothingness — its pride, 

And vanities that spurned control, 
As though life's orbit were so wide 

No man had ever reached its goal — 
Men who had neither tear nor sigh 
For aught, beneath the purer sky, 
Which clung to earth — men who had given 
Their passions, hopes and lives to heaven. 
But Desmond, as the turf was piled, 
Wept tears of anguish like some child 



112 CLONTARF. 

Who, trained in happiness from birth^ 
Loses the all he loved on earth. 
Then did his frame as aspen quiver, 

While vainly struggled soul and clay; 
As ripples of some deep, dark river 

Its channelled restlessness betray » 
The chief that through the battle field, 

Erect and proud, defiance bore, 
Before whose arm the firmest reeled 

That ever darkened Erin^s shore,- 
More pitiable was than they — 
That weak, lorn man of hopeless clay.. 
Of all — of all— of all bereft, 
Unsullied honor only left. 

When Nature had becalmed her mood, 
A moment wrapt in thought he stood ; 
And gentle resignation now. 
Like dawning light suffused his brow •, 

Strengthening his spirit to its needy 
And, faintly uttering one loved name, 
Thar fired his spirit with its. flame. 

His heart, like some deep river freed 
From frozen barriers, poured along 
His piteous caoine — his farewell song.^- 



CLONTARF. 113 



Qtmint. 



^* Oh ! had she died in earlier youth, 

Ere beauty in its fullness came, 
Or love, with its inspiring truth, 

Fed in her breast the sacred flame — 
Had she then died, my heart were not 

.A living tomb as it is now — 
Where hope can find no resting spot — 

And furrowing sorrow dims the brow. 



"t) 



Ah ! vainly does the wise man say 

That tears should flow not for the dead ; 
Nature will still enforce her way, 

As torrents scoop their mountain bed. 
Summer may dry the mountain stream 

And wild-flowers weave their curtain there ; 
But this fond heart ! — no summer beam 

Can bring concealing verdure here. 

When virtue, truth and beauty cease 
To make life lovely to the heart, 

Tears are but Heaven's kind dews of peace 
A soothing calmness to impart. 
10* 



114 CLONTARF. 

What though the Stoic had no tear 

Which touched by one endearment ran, 

He who Mononia's fate could hear 

Nor weep, were more or less than man. 

Though high in military fame 

Laurelled and proud was Desmond's nanae —r- 

Though loved and honored with a truth 

Proverbial of his nation's heart, 
And in the tropic time of youth, 

When meteors of ambition dart 
Across the soul bewildering 

With visions beautiful as bright, 
Leaving no pause for reason's wing. 

But luring it from height to height. 

With rich intensity of light, 
And flashing from its magic source 
On him their full concentred force •— 
Wealth, fame, ambition, beauty, power, 
And learning's more immortal dower, 
Which makes men mightier in their lot 

Than monarchs o'er a million slaves. 
Which graveth laws that perish not, 

But long outlive the sculptured graves 
Of generations — yet did he. 
Living henceforth for worlds to be. 



CLONTARF. 115 

The passion and the power resign 
In this mere world to soar and shine. 
The high ambition of his prayer, 

His country, was secure once more, 
No sceptre waved its mandate there 

Save that her kings for centuries bore. 
But the pure dreams of love, that filled 

The future with their splendid light, 
Returned no more for him, to gild 

On hour of time's too tardy flight. 
And oft at evening's thoughtful hour 

Would he walk forth, to meet the moon 
Within the well remembered bower. 

And there, in solitude, commune 
With Memory, who, her phantom crowd 

Of joys, untombed at his desire, 
'Till Reason, dimmed, enfeebled, bowed, 

Before the wizard would retire. 
And leave him to the transient dream. 
Unbroken by her truthful beam. 
And morn would come and find him there, 

A man of more depresssing woe. 
And he, in agony of prayer 
That heaven would shield him from despair, 

Would from that place of sorrow go, 



116 CLONTARF. 

Straying as though, so lost and dim, 
All places were alike to him. 

In broken-heartedness, at times, 
He fain would roam to distant climes 
Of Immortality's regard — 
The Caesars and the Mantuan bard — 
Would muse amid the ruins proud 

Of Rome, and feel as though again 
Had risen from her age's sbroud 

That mother of undying men. 
" Yet," he would say, " why seek a clime 
Where but the wasting power of time 
On all things earthly I can see, 
On pride and fame's infirmity, 
Alas ! if such a truth be dear. 
Its time and evidence are here — 
Here, even within my home, and now — 
See ! read my heart — behold my brow — 
They have been built by God's own hand. 

Illumed by hopes as bright as heaven. 
Sustained by all that's great and grand 
And virtuous in my native land 

To which all these are proudly given — 
Pillared and lifted to renown, 
Nor storm to rock, nor cloud to frown ; 



CLONTARF. 117 

Yet now behold them — me and mine — 
Ruin is on the inmost shrine, 
And misery writes each moment now, 
Her ceaseless triumphs on my brow." 
Thus, like the " left" of Israel's race, 
His bosom found no resting place. 
The very grave, by which arose. 

Eve after eve, the funeral hymn, 
And took the weary to repose. 

Seemed to deny repose to him. 

Years travelled on with usual pace. 

And nature felt no wrikling change 
Mar the fair beauty of her face, 

Nor one bright lineament derange ; 
Their lines of undulating grace 

The hills around the horizon rolled. 
And day light closed its splendid race 

'Mid the same lines of living gold ; 
But the strong manfulness of form. 

The classic forehead, white and smooth, 
The eye that through the battle's storm 

Flashed the impetuous soul of youth — 
The pulse that leaped with vigorous bound, 

Like a young athlete, through his heart — 



118 CLONTARF. 

The voice that with such dulcet sound 

As lutes o'er moonlight waves impart 
Nature, in these, alas ! to him, 
Was changed and desolate and dim. 
The past an ever present grief. 

The future unredeemed despair. 
He, like a lofty forest leaf. 

Blasted in life's unripened year — 
His mind, bewildered, ceased to find 
Or claim or kindred 'mid his kind ; 
Nor genial link that owned him part 
Of the wide universal heart. 
Mononia's name he seldom spoke 

In accents audible ; but then 
A smile along his features broke. 

Which was not as the smile of men : - 
A tranquillized expression — pure — 

Distinct from every mortal trace, 
A spirit-light which seemed to pour 

Ethereal radiance o'er his face. 

It seemed as, in Mononia's death, 
All had expired, of mortal breath 
He knew or cared again to know ; 
Alike to him seemed weal and woe. 



CLONTARF. 119 



And day by day his frame decayed 

Sinking beneath its long distress — 
Nature her yielding but delayed, 

And, wasted by life-weariness, 
Unloosed her tenure breath by breath. 
And hailed life's dawnino- lioht of death. 
But while yet lingering on the brink 
And holding to life's latest link, 
Desmond felt all the expiring light . 
Gather with concentrating might. 
Like beams of re-awakening hope, 
And to the past a vista ope — 
A beautiful and luminous way. 
That, like the sunset's golden play. 
Lit up the past ere it unfurled 
Its banners o'er a brighter world : 
Then as a man becomino; free 
Thus spoke his soul rejoicingly. 



2rftr Knijocation* 

Star of my love ! Celestial Vision beaming. 

And beckoning from thy home of light to me. 
In the rapt moments of my purest dreaming 
I've worshipped thee. 



120 CLONTAPvF. 

O ! thou wert fairest of this fair creation, 

That human mind could dream or eye could see ; 
A hope, a power, a glorious revelation 
Of love to me. 

Thou wert the earthly idol of my living ; 

Thy presence made it paradise to me ; 
Thy smile was all the w^orld possessed worth giving, 
Though bright it be. 

And I have loved thee too for that devotion 

With which thou 'st loved our Island of the 
sea; 
She felt the prayer of thy pure soul's emotion, 
And she is free. 

My country, may thy name and fame and glory — 

Hope, prowess, virtue, pride and liberty — 
Kindle thy sons in many a future story 
With chivalry. 

Free mayest thou be, honored and pure and holy, 

The GospePs rock-built ocean-sanctuary ! 
Accept this prayer for her from lips so lowly, 
Oh! God to thee! 



CLONTARF. 121 



He ceased, and smiled as though a dream 

Had round his soul Elysium cast ; 
But, in the rapture of the theme, 

The spirit of the hero passed : 
And ne'er did infant sink to rest 
More calmly on its mother's breast. 
Than sank that warrior to repose 
At his brief life's pacific close. 
Conscience, no demon-peopled scene, 

No paralyzing guilt, 
Spread in horrific wrath between 
His spirit, and the faith serene ' 

On which his hope was built. 
The glories which his memory drew. 

To his last moment, round his heart. 
Lifting its energies anew 

With nature's mystery of art, 
Gathered from deeds of virtuous fame, 
A high renown — an honored name : — • 
His country, not as in those years, 
Inglorious weeping blood for tears. 
Stricken in slavery's deepest deep. 
And drugged into insensate sleep — 
Aye ! not as now to bondage doomed, 
But, victor-hke, crested and plumed, 
11 



122 CLONTABFv 

Dwelling with freedom which his sword 
Defended from barbaric horde — 
The people of his native land 

Proud in the nation's own dominion^ 
And Happiness, from strand to strand, 
Shedding along the golden land 

The radiance of her sun-bright pinion— 
All these, like spirits of the blest, 

Around him came with fonder pow'r, 
To point afar his home of rest. 

And tranquilize his parting hour. 
True ! thoughts of Love's young martyr maid- 
Her truth and beauty — would invade, 
And turn his heavenward thoughts aside, 
With dreamings of his Spirit-Bride : 
But then remembering Earth hath nought 

Of love or joy undimmed, unstained, 
He sighed away the panting thought, 

And Heaven his worthier hopes sustained. 
And thus the hero passed away. 
No cloud to dim his parting day. 
Oh ! let his patriot virtues live ! 

For he was one of that high race, 
Who heart and hand would bravely give, 
That Freedom find a dwelling place. 



CLGNTARF. 123 

Where she in majesty could stand^ 
And with a trumpet-voice demand 
The universe as her own land. 
He was a soldier of that Isle 

Who ever hath to freedom given 
Her sons with gladness without guile. 

The bravest which the breath of Heaven 
Hath since creation vitalized ! 
And shall their children be despised ? 
Shall they whose minds by instinct know 

The mighty home of Freedom's fane. 
And to its grand proportions grow, 

As though upon their native plain, 
Stood Freedom's glorious shrines again. 

And join in her triumphant strain, 

And justify her right of reign, 
Sooner than Europe's other men ? 
Shall they thro' earth unhonor'd roam ; 

And shall they vainly breathe their plea 
That their loved Isle beyond the foam 

May share the freeman's sympathy ? 

America ! adopted land 

Of thousands from my native isle, 
^ Tis thine by Freedom's sons to stand, 

And bid the ocean-pilgrims smile — 



134 CLONTARF. 

Them who have sought her day by day, 

Far from their native homes away, 

Far from the graves of worthy sires, 

Far from their sacred altar fires, 

And far from those endearing ties 

In which half life's elysimn lies. 

For they have bled and still would bleed. 

Ere of thy banner proud unfurled 
One stripe should fade, one star recede, 

Against a thunder-mailed world. 
And they can dare the field, how well, 
How willingly, thy wars can tell. 
Let but the veriest mountaineer 

That roams upon Hibernia's hills. 
The sacred name of Freedom hear. 

Oh ! how his heart with rapture thrills. 
And if they swell the loud " hurra" 

For Freedom raised by treacherous art, 
They violate not Freedom's law. 

For Nature ne'er deceives the heart. 

Honest ! too easily beguiled ! 

Deceived, tho' scorning to deceive ! 
As lions brave ! and yet the child 

Not sooner will its nurse believe. 
Than will they shed for others' ills 
The fullness of their bosoms' rillg. 



CLONTARF. 125 



But let Deceit conviction wake 5 
Wild, as convulsive shocks that shake 
Cities from off our earth, are they 
To crush the serpents that betray. 
And this is justice —right of soul — i 

Prerogative from Nature's youth, 
That spurns all lesser laws' control — 

Justice inflexible as Truth. 

America ! need I portray 

The fervent, unconditioned love 
With which they battled in that day 

When England's banner first above 
Thy homes in fury was flung out ? 
Or tell with what a joyous shout 
They rushed into thy battle then, 
A living hurricane of men } 
Shall I, tho' humble, call upon 
Thy Heaven-commissioned Washington, 
Whose fortunes, in their darkest night, 
They followed in the doubtful fight > 
No ! step of mine shall not invade 
The home of his departed shade. 
But of the living I shall seek. 
Who, counseled by awarding Fame, 
11* 



126 dLONTARF. 

In monuments marble speak 

The glory of Montgomery's name 
And see, again, where close beside 
Standeth that obelisk of pride 
To Ireland's Cicero who gave 

His exiled genius to the State, 
And sank into his honored grave, 

Pre-eminent among the great ; 
While Justice 'mid her sacred walls, 
Upon the shade of Emmet calls, 
From whose inspired lips the spell 
Of eloquence convincing fell : — 
Yes ! there are living round us still 
Of whom these works declare the will, 
Who twined the wreaths of grateful fame 
For Emmet's and Montgomery's name. 
And shall the Island of their birth, 

'Gainst slavery leagued, a slave remain, 
Or, " 'mid the nations of the earth," 

Uprising from the oppressor's chain, 
Resume her plaee ? It is with thee 
To say how long these things shall be. 
Yes ! yes ! to thee, and to thy race, 
America ! I urge my plea ; 
Thy land is Freedom's dwelling place, 
And such may it for ever be : 



CLONTARF. 127 

She tells her tale of woes to thee ; 

To whom can she look up for aid, 
If not to the victorious free, 

Whom Freedom her vice-gerents made ? 
All thou canst do is but thy part 

Of Freedom\s delegated trust, 
To cheer the nations who would start 

To life, and lift them from the dust. 
Be friendly to her friends, and fond : 
For so 'tis written in thy hond- 

We ask not men — we ask not arms, 
Nor fleets to thunder war's alarms — 
Nothing to weaken ev'en one tie 

Which Commerce weaves across the sea : 
We ask thee but to breathe the sigh. 

The word of generous sympathy — 
To c^ive the heart without the hand, 
And vindicate my native land. 



ERRATA. 

Page 22 — For '^By the skill of a free-men/' 
Read '^ By the skill of a free-Twan." 

'^ 47 — For '' When farewell sunbeams kissed each 
each flower." 

Read '■'■ When farewell sunbeams kissed 
each flower." 

'^ ^^ — Yor '^And felt their hearts so ifmne-like 
grew." 
Read ''And felt their hearts so twin-likQ 
grew." 

^'^ — For '^ Soils the blue heavens' infinity." 
Read '•' Sails the blue heavens' infinity." 



NOTES 



NOTES TO CLONTAHF. 



(1.) Set between them and Iber's race, 

The covenant stone upon its place. 

On that day, the second day after Baal had entered into the 
second chamber of his house Sgith, was the covenant made. 
«' And the Danaan did set up a large stone on the spot where 
the covenant was made ; and I, Ordac, have set down the words 
on the clironicles of the Gaal, to remain forever." — O' Conner's 
Chronicles of Eri, Part IL Chapter 1. 

(2.) Then did the bright Galgrena rise. 

Galgrena signifies " The Brightness of the Sun, or Sun- 
Burst," and is applied to the Irish National Banner. 

(3.) Where daring Erigena's light. 

The most remarkable man that Ireland, or perhaps any other 
country, sent forth in those ages, was the learned and subtle 
John Scotus, whose distinctive title of Erigena, or, as it was 
sometimes written, Eringena, points so clearly to the land of his 
birth, that, among the numbers who have treated of his life 
and writings, but few have ventured to contest thi§ point. He 
went to France about the year 815, where his great learning 
and social and intellectual powers secured for him the esteem 
and familiar companionship of Charles the Bold, King of France. 
His knowledge of Greek was extraordinary, and he was deeply 



132 NOTES. 



acquainted with the mystic theology of the Alc-^-nc'rian School, 
which he derived in reality from his study of tL- writings 
ascribed to Dionysius, the Areopagite, " whose the logical trea- 
tise he translated, by appointment of Charles the i'old, into the 
Latin language, with the view of rendering ihem acces^^ihle to 
such readers as were unacquainted with tAo Greelc. These 
mystic doctrines he introduced into the theology of tlie West, 
thereby giving rise to innumerable mischiefs, and it is well ob- 
served, as strange, that " while the Hibernians were the first 
teachers of Scholastic Theology in Europe," so an Hibernian, 
himself unrivalled among the dialecticians of his day, should 
have been also the first to introduce into the arena the antago- 
nist principles of mysticism." — Moore, Volume 2. 



(4.) And Italy of classic ground, 

Donatus with a sceptre crowned. 

Donatus having gone on a pilgrimage to Rome was induced 
to fix himself in Italy, and soon after became Bishop of Fiesole. 



(5.) Slumber in April's moonlight reign. 

The battle of Clontarf was fought in the month of April, in 
the year 1014. 



(6.) On Nature's April of green. 
See last note. 

(7.) Maolmorda's treason gathering strength. 

The King of Leinster, Maolmorda, who had, in the yeat 
999, been aided by the forces of the Danes in usurping the crown 
of that kingdom, now co-operated with them in a plundering 
expedition into Meath despoiling and burning all that lay in their 
way. 

" To avenge this violation of his territory, the deposed mo- 
narch, now only King of Meath, set fire to the neighboring dis- 
tricts of Leinster, as far as Benadar, the present Hill of Howth. 
There being attacked by the combined forces of Maolmorda and 
his Danish allies, he was entirely defeated with the loss of 200 



NOTES. 133 



of his best troopsj his son Flann, and several of the noble chiefs 
of Meath." 

* * « « * 

" In the summer of 1013, so menacing an aspect had the com- 

bined movement of the Danes and Lagenians begun to assume, 

that Brian, to meet the coming danger, advanced his quarters 

to the neighborhood of Dublin, laying waste the country of Os- 

sory in his march." . . , . " Here he remained from the 

month of August until Christmas, when, finding that he could 

not succeed in bringing the Danes or Lagenians to action, he 

broke up his quarters, and returned, laden with ample spoil, to 

Kincora." 

***** 

" No sooner had Brian withdrawn from his cantonment in 
the neighborhood of Dublin, than the Danes of that city, as 
well as of every other part of Ireland where these foreigners 
were dispersed, began to prepare with the utmost activity for a 
combined effort against the Irish, by despatching envoys in 
every direction to summon auxiliaries to their banner. Not 
only from Scotland, from the Orkneys and Hebrides, the Isle of 
Man, and the Isles of Shetland, did they muster together all the 
disposable forces of their fellow Northmen, but even to Den- 
mark, Norway, and other parts of Scandinavia. 

" Though long prepared, by the natural alliance which 
had placed Leinster in the hands of the Danes, to expect a 
struggle of no ordinary description, Brian could little have fore- 
seen so formidable an array of force as was now collecting to 
assail him. Nothing daunted, however, by their numbers, he 
put himself at the head of his own brave army of Munster, and 
joined by Malachy with the troops of Meath, and by the forces 
of Connaught, under the command of Teige, the King of that 
province, marched directly to the plain of Dublin, and took up 
his station in front of the enemy, on the very same ground 
which had been occupied by him in the summer of the preced- 
ing year. 

" Having reconnoitred the state of the opposing force, he ven- 
tured to detach into Leinster a select body of troops, consisting 

12 



134 NOTES. 



of his Dalcassian warriors, together with a small body also of 
the Eugenians, for the purpose of devastating the dominions of 
the King of Leinster, and thereby causing a diversion of the en- 
emy's force." 

The Danes, becoming aware of the diminution of Brian's force 
spent the whole of the night in preparing for a general action 
and " presented themselves at the first dawn of light before the 
Irish army, which had taken up its position at this time on the 
plain of Clontarf. It had been the wish, we are told, of Brian 
to avoid engaging on this day, (Friday, April 23d,) which, as 
being the anniversary of Christ's passion, ought to have been 
kept sacred, as he felt, from the profanation of warfare. Being, 
however, obliged to waive his scruples upon this point, he after- 
wards skilfully, as we shall see, turned the incident to account 
— making it the means of calling forth the religious as well as 
the military zeal and enthusiasm of his countrymen." 

(8.) The raven flag of Denmark then. 
The field of the Danish flag was white, with a raven as its 
device. 

(9.) And from Menavia's nearer clime. 
Menavia — the Isle of Man. 

(10.) How maids whom Freya loved of old, 
She whose hot tears are turned to gold. 
Odin is the Jupiter of the Scandinavian mythology — he is the 
first and chiefest of all, and lives forever; he sits upon the ele- 
vated throne Lidskjalf, whence he observes every thing in the 
universe, alone, contemplating his own being. He is also called 
Walfadcr, (Father of all who fall in battle,) which title be- 
longs to him as ruler of Valhalla — which was a palace surround- 
ed by groves and beautiful environs ; in it was the dwelling of 
heroes who had fallen in battle. Here life is passed in bloody 
war and riotous revelry. But all wounds here received in battle 
are healed as soon as the trumpet sounds for the feast ; and then 
the heroes quaff the oil of Enherium, and the beautiful Valky- 



NOTES. 135 



rias fill their cups. These Valkyrias, or Disas, are awful and 
beautiful beings — neither daughters of heaven nor of hell; nei- 
ther begot by gods, nor cradled in the lap of immortal mothers. 
Nothing is said of their origin. Their name signifies the 
" choosers of the slain," (from wal, a heap of killed, and kyria, 
to choose.) They appear awful and horrid in the songs of the 
scalds ; yet we find them to be the beautiful maids of Odin, 
with helmet and mail, and mounted on swift horses. Heroes 
long for their arrival, enamored of their charms. They conduct- 
ed the heroes to Valhalla, where the apples of immortality are 
presented to them on their entrance : those apples alone 
preserve the eternal youth of the gods. In this mythology 
Freya is ranked as the Goddess of Love, 

(11.) And one to Urdar's holy well, 

And one to where the Nomas dwell. 
The tree of the world, Ydrasil, stands over the well of time ; 
Its branches extend over the world, its top reaches above the 
heavens. It has three roots— one among the gods, another 
among the giants, and a third under Hela. Near the middle 
root is the fountain of wisdom, the fountain of Mimers. Near 
the heavenly root is the sacred fountain, by which the gods hold 
their council and make known their decisions. From these 
fountains rise three beautiful maids, the Nomas, whose names 
are : Urd, (the Past,) Varande, (the Present,) and Skuld, (the 
Future.) They determine the fate of mortals, and aid or pun- 
ish them by their ministers. 

(12.) Furies follow on the breeze. 

And the Raven's triumph ring. 
See Note S. 

(13.) 'T was her sons' revenge that gave 

Hellas to the Roman. 

When, with a blind and rash policy, the Etolians solicited the 

aid of the Romans against the Macedonians, the Romans availed 

themselves of this desirable opportunity of adding to their con- 



136 NOTES. 



quests : and this was the beginning of the end. The history of 
Ireland affords a similar instance of the impolicy of calling in 
foreign aid to settle her domestic differences. 

(14.) The Cross of Calvary's sacrifice. 
It had been the wish, we "are told, of Brian to avoid engaging 
on this day, (Friday, April 23d, 1014,) which, as being the an- 
niversary of Christ's Passion, ought to have been kept sacred, 
as he felt, from the profanation of warfare. Being forced, how- 
ever, to waive his scruples upon this point, he afterward skil- 
fully, as we shall see, turned the incident to account — making 
it the means of calling forth the religious as well as the military 
zeal and enthusiasm of his countrymen. — Moore's History of 
Ireland. 

(15.) Till so profusely did the tide 

Of life gush forth on either side. 
A writer in Colgan's Acta Sanctorum says : — " Quae ingenti 
prselio in Cluain Tarbh juxta Dublinium commisso, mutuas 
vires ita irreparabiliter debilitarunt, ut neutra gens in hunc us- 
que diem pristinas vires recuperaverint." 

(16) Such as weak Prejudice might fear 
To see in kindling glories there. 
In comparing, indeed, the histories of England and Ireland at 
this period, it is impossible not to be struck by the strong con- 
trast which they exhibit. The very same year which saw Ire- 
land pouring forth her assembled princes and clans, to confront 
the invader on the sea-shore, and there, of his myriads, make a 
warning example to all future intruders, beheld England un- 
worthily cowering under a similar visitation — her King a fugi- 
tive from the scourge in foreign lands, and her nobles purchas- 
ing, by inglorious tribute, a short respite from aggression ; and 
while, in the English annals for this year, we find little else 
than piteous lamentations over the fallen and broken spirit both 
of rulers and people, in the records of Ireland, the only sorrows 
which appear to have mingled with the general triumph, are 



NOTES. 137 



those breathed at the tombs of the veteran monarch and the nu- 
merous chieftains who perished in that struggle by his side. — 
Moore's History of Ireland. 

These remarks are sustained by the following quotation from 
Matthew of Westminster, who, speaking of the broken spirit of 
the English, says : — " Nee fuit quispiam qui hostibus obviaret." 
And again, in referring to the wretched Ethelred: — "Inertia 
terpens, timidus, suspiciosus .... exercitum congregare vel 
contra hostes ducere non audebat, metuens ne nobiles regni quos 
injuste exhaeredaverat, in campo eum relinquentes hostibus tra- 
derent ad damnandum. Ad. ann. 1013." Ingulfus also thus 
describes the English of that day as cowering before every as- 
sailant : — " Omnes hostes in capite super Anglos semper vincere, 
et ex omni certamine semper prevalere." 

I will not, I trust, be deemed over-zealous, if I add one other 
testimony, that of William of Newbridge, on this point, on which 
the character of Ireland is but too often misrepresented, perhaps 
because too superficially understood : — " It is a matter of wonder 
that Britain, which is of larger extent, and equally an Island of 
the Ocean, should have been so often, by the chances of war, 
made the prey of foreign nations, and subjected to foreiga rule- 
having been first subdued and possessed by the Romans, then by 
the Germans, afterwards by the Danes, and lastly by the Normans 
— while her neighbor, Hibernia, inaccessible to the Romans 
themselves, even when the Orkneys were in their power, has 
been but rarely, and then imperfectly, subdued; nor ever, in re- 
ality, has been brought to submit to foreign domination till the 
year of our Lord 1171." 

(17.) But a meek saint on bended knee. 
In prayer translated, spirit-free. 
Marianus Scotus, in his short record of the battle, represents 
Brian as engaged in prayer at this period of the attack ; — " Bri- 
anus, rex Hiberniae, Parasceve Paschae, sexta feria 9 Calendas 
Maii, manibus et mente ad Deum intentus necatur ;" — all which 
Torfseus pronounces to be in perfect accordance with tlie Scandi- 
navian accounts. 

12* 



138 NOTES. 



(18.) Witness, ye warriors ! mine's the pride^ 
That by this sword has Brian died. 
Turn Broder sic exclamare : referat homo horrini Brianum 
a Brodere dejectum. 

(19.) Fatal to Erin's king as told 
By oracle renowned of old. 
The Scandinavian authorities, speaking of Broder's giving bat- 
tle on this day, say it was in obedience to the suggestion of some 
oracular idol, consulted by him, which answered " that if the en- 
gagement took place on a Friday, King Brian would assuredly 
fall in the field. 

(20.) The sad Banshee or evil fay. 
Banshees are supernatural beings, who bewail, in sweet and 
melancholy songs, the actual or approaching death of individuals 
of whose families they are especial followers. 

(2 1.) His piteous caoine — his farewell song. 
Caoine signifies a dirge or wail over the remains of the de- 
parted. 



POEMS 



MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 



THE OCEAN. 



Likeness of Heaven ! 

Agent of power ! 
Man is thy victim ; 

Shipwrecks thy dower I 
Spices and jewels 

From valley and sea, 
Armies and banners 

Are buried in thee ! 

What are the riches 
Of Mexico's mines, 

To the wealth that far down 
In thy deep water shines r^ 



144 MISCELLANEOUS. 

The navies that cover 
The conquering West — 

Thou lling'st them to death 
With one heave of thy breast ! 

From the high hills that vizor 

Thy wreck-making shore, 
When the bride of the mariner 

Shrieks at thy roar — 
When, like lambs in the tempest, 

Or mews in the blast. 
O'er thy ridge-broken billows 

The canvas is cast — 

How humbling to one 

With a heart and a soul, 
To look on thy greatness 

And list to its roll ; 
To think how that heart 

In cold ashes shall be, 
While the voice of eternity 

Rises from thee ! 

Yes ! where are the cities 
Of Thebes and of Tyre ? 

Swept from the nations 
Like sparks from the fire ! 



MISCELLANEOUS. I45 

The glory of Athens, 

The splendor of Rome ? 
Dissolved — and for ever — > 

Like dew in thy foam. 

But thou art almighty — 

Eternal — sublime — 
Unweakened — unwasted — 

Twin-brother of Time ! 
Fleets, tempests, nor nations 

Thy glory can bow ; 
As the stars first beheld thee, 

Still chainless art thou ! 



But when thy deep surges 

No longer shall roll, 
And the firmament's lenp-th 

Is drawn back like a scroll, 
Then — then shall the spirit 

That sighs by thee now. 
Be more mighty, more lasting, 

More chainless than thou. 
13 



146 MISCELLANEOUS. 



SERENADE. 



I Ve watched the tardy sun go down, 

Till darkened Mona's topmost tree. 
And shone the star-encircled crown 

Of Dian circling from the sea ; 
And now, my dreaming girl, I bring 

The offering of my heart to thee j 
Wake from thy slumbers while I sing, 

Reveillez-vous belie endormie / 

There is a star which shineth bright^ 

And only lovers' eyes can see, 
And, calm or stormy be the night, 

Its home is all tranquillity : 
That star is beauty born above, 

Moving and beaming but in thee ; 
Then wake, my own, my gentle love^ 

Reveillez-vous belle endormie ! 

I would not be again a boy, 

With mind unripe and thoughtless brain 
No ! give me love's romantic joy, 

And all the transport of its pain ; 



MISCELLANEOUS. 147 

Maturity of manly bliss, 

To weave with mine thy destiny, 
And sing by midnight moons like this, 

Reveillez-vous belle endormie ! 

The world hath slaves who dare not know 

The pulse, the paradise of love — 
The passions' range, the spirit's glow. 

The fire that kindleth from above ; 
Who ne'er by moon or lesser star 

Have roamed by bower or summer sea, 
Or sung to lute or light guitar, 

Reveillez-vous belle endormie ! 

Mine is the glory, thine the spell — 

We both reflect their mingled pow'rs ; 
From starry sky to leafy dell. 

The universe of soul is ours. 
Ne'er could a world, by love unblest, 

Be dweUing place, my girl, for thee. 
When rapture is life's only rest : 

Reveillez-vous belle endormie ! 

Then wake the lute thou 'st waked so oft, 
And sing again, as oft thou 'st sung, 

And in that silken language soft 

Which thrilleth, uttered from thy tongue ; 



148 MISCELLANEOUS. 

And as thy accents melt along, 

Like wind-harp breathings o'er the sea, 

I '11 blend with it my moonlight song, 
Eeveillez-vous belle endormie ! 



MISCELLANEOUS. 161 

And pine trees by the Dee shut out the pale moon's 

pensive star, 
With foliage dark of Invercauld, and the spreading of 

Braemar. 

But over all in pride and strength, and ancientness 

and power, 
Stands firm Clan- Alpine's banner-tree, topping the 

mountain tov/er. 
Girt by his own dominions — deep rocks and cliffs 

around — 
Unweakened by the tempest's breath or the torrent's 

wasting bound. 

Then live the pine of Scotland, that dwelleth in de- 
light 

Up where the lightning banners lead the thunder- 
clouds of night ! 

Long may its carnival of leaves be joyous in the 
light. 

While all look up to that kingly tree on his throne of 
ancient might. 



152 MISCELLANEOUS. 



THE FOREST STREAM. 



Bright stream of the forest, 

Unnamed and unknown ! 
Thou shin'st not less brightly 

In shining alone : 
Smooth, calm, and transparent, 

Thou glidest along. 
To the old woods repeating 

Thy myst'ry of song. 

Bright stream of the forest ! 

I love thee full well ; 
Thou art to my bosom 

A soul and a spell 
When I see thee I fancy 

Thou lookest on me, 
With the beautiful sadness 

Of moonlight on sea. 

Round thy spring on the mountain 

Th' horizon was splendid. 
Where all hues of the sunlioht 

o 

Were gloriously blended : 



MISCELLANEOUS. 149 



THE SCOTTISH PINE. 



The mountain-pine of Scotland ! it liveth in delight, 

Aloft where lightning-banners lead the thunder-clouds 
of night; 

Not from the soil that deeply lies in the lowland val- 
leys down, 

Does the Pine his sceptred arm extend, or lift his 
leafjT^ crown. 

But on his heritance of hights where the blood-red 
sunsets play. 

Like meteor plumes on a warrior's helm at the close 
of battle day, 

There — there he stands the mountain king, and a 
glorious king is he. 

As he sees with pride on every side his forest chiv- 
alry. 

What know they of his glory ? what feel they of his 

pride, 
Or of the loud-wheeled thunder trains that round his 

empire ride — - 



150 MISCELLANEOUS. 

They who have never seen him soar where the 

eagle's vision fails, 
From his native Highland heather dark, to wrestle 

with the gales ? 

" Loosed is a flood of sunlight," the gloom is changed 
to gold, 

And the cascades of orchestral sounds their scenic 
pride unfold, 

And, by that lustre, deeply down, each calm romantic 
scene 

Is vista'd off by sun-touched glades that ope to mead- 
ows green. 

Hath all the Arab's fairy realm a glory like to this — 
Beauty, and power, and fear, and joy, in one ecstatic 

bliss ? 
One glance to those eternal pines, when storm-clouds 

are unfurled. 
Is far beyond the spell-built halls of the Genii's spirit 

*world. 

Pine trees are in Glengary, Glemoriston, Glenmore, 
Strathglass, Lock-Shiel, Findhorn, and calm Lock- 
Arkaig's shore, 



MISCELLAIi'EOUS. 153 

But that summit, where rested 

The firmament's glor}'-, 
Had no voice for thy moral, 

No ear for thy story. 

From the pride of that region 

Built up in the skies, 
Thou seekest this silence, 

This valley of sighs ; 
Where the tempest, expiring, 

Just-mingleth its breath 
With the dirge of the zephyr, 

And sinketh to death. 

Here deep contemplation, 

Undazzlgd and calm. 
Goes up as in Ela, 

The Prophet's high psalm : 
The wing of the spirit 

Is peacefully furled. 
While thunders are rocking 

The firmament world. 

Thus calm in humility. 

Fearless and free, 
My stream of existence 

Glides onward like thee ; 



154 MISCELLANEOUS. 

A type and a promise, 
Unveil'd and engraven, 

Of its ocean-ward path 
To eternity's haven ! 



MISCELLANEOUS. 155 



NIGHT. 



So beautifully fair, 

I Ve seen the night-hour never ; 
There 's brightness in the air, 
And music in the river. 

No shade — no cloud 

The moon to shroud 
That moves so meek and slowly, 

'Mid isles of light. 

The pure — the bright, 
The beautiful and holy. 

Does she yon glorious hight 

Eternally inherit. 
To beacon with her light 
The disembodied spirit ? 

And those bright isles 

That gild with smiles 
The sea of heaven's dominions — 

Have they been made 

In flower and shade 
To rest its pilgrim pinions ? 



156 MISCELLANEOUS. 

Or are they worlds like this, 

Thro' space and darkness sweeping, 
With one brief hour of bliss 
To glad an age of weeping ? 

And have their spheres 

The hopes, the fears, 
The passions and the pleasures, 

Fever of fame. 

Ambitious game. 
And earth's delusive treasures ? 

Or will the fond and fair, 

Who here in anguish sever. 
Live in those homes of air. 
United and for ever ? 

O ! thus allow'd 

Ye mystic crowd 
How happy, 'mid our sorrow, 

To know the tear 

That trickles here 
Your joys will dry to-morrow. 



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